South stars Suriya and Jyothika had first met on the sets of Tamil film, Poovellam Kettuppar (1999). After dating each other for many years, the couple finally tied the knot in September 2006 and now have two children – a daughter and a son. And in Jyothika’s words, even after 18 years of their union, their marriage is still going strong, thus slamming reports of there being trouble in paradise.

In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, she says, “My husband is my best friend. He was the first guy I met in the industry and I did my first film with him. We remained friends for a long time. Since we’ve lasted this long and continue to, I’m imagining that it’s because of the friendship we share.”

The lovebirds have worked together on 11 films. And as per recent reports, they’re all set to come together onscreen in Anjali Menon’s upcoming directorial. Quiz her about it and she shares, “We’re waiting for the right script to come our way so that we can reunite onscreen.”

And while it has been a while since they’ve worked in a film together, they often talk discuss each other’s work and share ‘honest’ feedback without dictating their better half’s script choices. Talking about it, Jyothika tells us, “We’re husband-wife and we’re extremely honest critics of each other’s work. We never sugarcoat anything back home. It’s an opinion, after all. He might like something that I don’t and vice-versa. But our choices are own. I make my own decision and he makes his.”

Suriya, in fact, also was instrumental in convincing Jyothika to be a part of Srikant. Earlier, in an interaction with us, director Tushar Hiranandani revealed that she had some reservations about signing the film but then it was her superstar husband who told her to not ‘miss out’ on the film.

Spilling the beans on what held her back from saying an instant yes to the Rajkummar Rao starrer, Jyothika says, “It was a shocker because it meant that I would come back to Hindi films after 27 long years. It took me a while to actually wrap my head around the fact that it will be a restart of my Hindi film career.”

The Kaathal: The Core actor adds, “I kept wondering if it would be the right restart and whether it will work out. That’s why I took a day to think over it. And in those 24 hours, I realised that Srikanth is one of the finest scripts I’ve read in a while and it just hit home.”

So, has Suriya watched the film and shared his reaction yet? “He hasn’t seen the film. We haven’t sat down to watch the final version yet. He has seen it in bits only. But he had read the script. Both of us are fans of good cinema. We only put on films we like and believe in and that has been our goal in the last couple of years,” reveals Jyothika.