Television has become the happy hunting grounds for onscreen pairs to tie the knot off the screen, too. "Hiten (Tejwani) and Gauri (Pradhan) look so cool together, nah!

After all, they are a real-life couple, yaar. They have to have that special chemistry between them," says a beaming Nivedita, 16-year-old first year junior college student.

Another friend of hers adds that she prayed for both of them to actually get married when they were acting together in Sony's Kutumb.

So, is it the viewer's expectations or something else that brings the onscreen lovers together and married eventually?

"This new phenomenon of screen-lovers actually getting married to each other can be attributed to long hours spent together on the sets, finding comfort in each other's company and understanding that the professional demands better," comments Dr Sachchidanand who has been counseling couples from different walks of life, including Tellywood.

As television today reaches giddy heights of popularity, more and more TV artistes are finding love on the sets and getting paired up probably even more than their film counterparts ever.

Varun Badola-Rajeshwari Sachdev, Poonam Narula-Manish Goyal, Hiten Tejwani-Gauri Pradhan, Mihir Mishra-Manini De and so many other ‘happily married' TV couples first met their respective soul mates while shooting for a tele-drama together.

And they didn't even realise when that drama slowly creped into their real life and they fell in real love.

"Manav (Gohil) and I met on the sets of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii. We were friends for a long time until we realised we were in love," reveals Shweta Kwatra.

Similar are the views of Yash Tonk who says, "I met Gauri (Yadav) on the sets of Kaahin Kissii Roz. After a month of knowing each other, I realised that something special was brewing between us. So, I proposed to her, and she said ‘yes'."

And if we go by the success ratio of such ‘relationships', it's far higher than its filmy counterparts.

Agreeing to the fact, actor Parmeet Sethi comments, "Being together with Archana (Puran Singh) has helped me a lot. We have that understanding between us. We have seen the pitfalls of success and failure together.

An actor's life is very insecure. There is a lot of demand on each other. And only an actor can understand what the other is going through.

We can discuss our work together and let out our frustrations which could range from troubling co-actors to professional inconveniences and anything else." Parmeet further grins adding, "Even if I got a second chance I would like to get married to Archana only."

Actor-director Sachin and wife Supriya have been together for more than 20 years now. And the fire between the two is not at all lost, as seen in Nach Baliye sometime ago where they were crowned the ‘Nach Baliye Couple'.

Before that they worked in the very successful sitcom, Tu Tu Main Main, which was also very popular. Guess, viewers also like to see them sizzle on the screen and enjoy their real-life chemistry.

It's not that only when two people share the screen as ‘lovers' that they realise their compatibility.

As in the case of Kiran Karmarkar and Rinku Dhawan, of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii fame, where Kiran played brother Om Agarwal while she played his sister Chhaya when they found out that they were actually made to spend life with each other.

Similar was the situation in the Yash Tonk-Gauri Yadav relationship. Gauri was playing his sister-in-law in the show and as confessed by Gauri, "Yash surprised me by proposing to me one fine day.''

So, the conclusion is that it's the time spent together irrespective of the kind of character they are playing, which make two people realise that they would better be together forever.

"Having a spouse from the same field is great because there is a lot of sync between the two. So even though it is the glamour world there is a lot of trust and faith," says Manav Gohil.

Actress Smita Bansal, who got married to director Ankush Mohla agrees to this, "For me it would have been difficult to get settled down with someone from some other profession. There are a lot of things involved like long hours, late nights and stress which only someone from this profession can understand."

Chhavi Mittal, who is married to director Mohit Hussein, feels the same. "I do not know about other professions, but in this profession it's always better to have someone connected to this world.

There are erratic schedules, things getting delayed, round-the-clock work, something very different from other professions, that's why it's always better to have someone from the same field."

Another couple who has been together for a long time now is Rajiv Paul and Delnaaz. "We met on the sets of Parivartan, which was in 1993," explains Delnaaz. But time seems to have only made the bond stronger.

Sarabhai V/s Sarabhai's Roshesh, Rajesh Kumar might have been looking for a girl in the serial, but when it comes to marriage, he also prefers someone from the same profession. He is married to actress Madhavi in real- life who he says "completes him".

Sai Deodhar-Shakti Anand met on the sets of Saara Aakash where love, and later, marriage happened. And there is also Rohit Roy and Manasi Joshi Roy and Apoorva Agnihotri and Shilpa Saklani. And the list just goes on and on and on.

But the best example of ‘quickest realisation' about the life partner is that of Mihir Mishra and Manini De. They met on the sets of a serial and got married within days of knowing each other. One year down the line Mihir is playing loving hubby and caring father to Manini's daughter, Dianoor, who is from her earlier marriage.