DUBAI // Indian Nitin Mirani took his partner and the audience by surprise on Saturday night when he formally proposed to her at the end of his show at Dubai Comedy Festival.
In front of a crowd of more than 1,000, Mirani pulled out a ring box, ran into the audience, went down on one knee and asked model and actress Madhu Sneha to marry him.
An astonished Sneha said “yes” as the audience cheered.
Minutes before the proposal, Mirani joked about how women loved to complain and that he had been scolded by his girlfriend for not formally proposing to her.
He told the audience that the couple had recently completed a “roka” ceremony so he did not see the point of a proposal.
Customary in north India, roka is a ceremony attended by the close family of the bride and groom to be to symbolise the couple are committed to each other. Mirani’s official proposal came at the end of the Desi Invasion show that featured him and four Indian comedians.
The Dubai-based comedian finished fourth in the Laugh Factory’s Funniest Person in the World competition in Las Vegas last year.
He grew up in the UAE and has temporarily relocated to Mumbai to work on a Bollywood film project in which he will play a gangster.
Mirani later tweeted: “Soo...it happened...I proposed at the show and she said yes...thank you @dubaicomedyfest.”
The moment was tweeted by several in the audience, including Egyptian-American actor and comedian Ahmed Ahmed, who said: “Just witnessed Desi Super Star @nitinmirani propose to his fiance on stage dubaicomedyfest.”
But some in the audience were confused about the courtship process.
As one person said, while leaving the venue at SkyDive Dubai: “But if the roka is over then she must have already said yes?”
Maybe Mirani was just making doubly sure – in front of an audience at the Comedy Festival.
rtalwar@thenational.ae
