Ruth David / Forbes

Mumbai, Dec 20: Indian celebrities may have lavish weddings, but their infrequent divorces are tame affairs, often settled out of court to escape the media glare and stem the damage to their public image.

Unlike in the West, there are no extravagant settlement numbers doing the rounds for months before the divorce is finalized. And though Indian stars may make charges of abuse and infidelity, it would be hard to find the lurid details plastered across newspapers and over the Internet, the way they were recently in the Paul McCartney/Heather Mills battle.  

Omar Qureshi, Bollywood editor for the country's leading English daily, The Times of India, says public image is very important in India's culture. "Celebrities become gods and goddesses who can do no wrong," he says. "Which is one reason why Indian stars who played the role of deities in television and on the big screen went on to win political elections."

"The tradition of living in a joint family and cultural pressures on our icons has not allowed many divorces," Qureshi says. Ironically, there is less condemnation if stars stay married and have affairs on the side, which are considered a part of tinsel town.

Another reason for the lack of juicy details is that the paparazzi culture hasn't invaded India the way it has in the West. Though the growth in television channels over the past few years is changing that, the divorce battles of the few stars who end their marriages have been relatively hush-hush, says Qureshi, who's written about Bollywood for the last 20 years.

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who remarried after divorcing the mother of his two children about two decades ago, says in India, as in everywhere else in the world, one man's tragedy is another's entertainment. "Everyone wants a blow-by-blow account of what's going on."

But the veteran director says he hasn't heard of stars going through a public lynching when marriages fail, because they often "whither away quietly."

Divorces are the extreme steps people resort to. And when they happen, an Indian man isn't as vulnerable as his counterparts in the West, says Bhatt. "Look what happened to McCartney: The man who sang Can't Buy Me Love realized love's for sale."

Bhatt adds that Indians are more realistic about passion; they realize that "this too shall pass." And if the women don't want to end the marriage, they come to an agreement where the status quo is maintained, he says.

Mrinalini Deshmukh, who was the lawyer for businessman Arun Nayar's former wife Valentina Pedroni--Nayar's present love is Liz Hurley--and for Indian actor Aamir Khan, says that unlike in the West, "irreconcilable differences" are not grounds enough for one of the partners to file for divorce. A marriage can legally be ended only for mental cruelty, infidelity or a partner's psychiatric disorder.

When Nayar filed for divorce in India, he cited mental cruelty. Pedroni denied the charges, and the case was later moved to London, where the divorce was finalized last November.

Deshmukh says celebrity clients often prefer to settle outside of court instead of exposing their lives to the public glare and going through a long, drawn-out legal battle.

Though celebrity divorces attract a good amount of voyeuristic interest, whether you're a celebrity or not has no bearing on the trial, says lawyer Malvika Rajkotia. Cases drag on, and it can take months just to get a hearing date, she says. Though India secures the rights of women on paper, it takes several years for a divorcee to get her dues, says Rajkotia.