Bravo’s latest show can now be added to its other list of

Bravo’s latest show can now be added to its other list of successful franchises.

A first in the Industry, Bravo follows four couples on camera for an entire year, documenting all intimate moments in their first year of marriage.

The eight-episode series follows each couple and captures everything from their wedding day to their one-year anniversary, chronicling all of the trials and tribulations that arise as a newlywed.

With 50% of all marriages ending in divorce, viewers will watch these couples put love to the test in each compelling, hour-long episode.

Although the journeys of the couples’ paths never cross, their stories offer a common thread that allows viewers to relate to the joys and challenges of married life. With issues ranging from fertility struggles and merging of finances to major cultural differences and family drama – which of these couples will survive the first year of marriage?

Tina is an Indian international pop star (see our interview with her here) who has recorded with everyone from Timbaland to Ringo Starr and performed at the “Indian Grammy Awards.” Tarz, a former model turned “tech geek,” is president/co-founder of a start-up web company, Pandoodle.

Between Tina’s rising success in music and Tarz’s focus on his business, the couple has struggled to find time together over the years. They hope getting married will change that, but find it may be easier said than done. Sex is a stressful issue due to Tarz’s long work days and the pressure of trying to make a baby. With Tarz constantly bumping heads with Tina’s traditional father, family problems also contribute to their marriage.

We caught up with the Asian half of Tarzina!!

ASIANCE: How did you land a spot on Bravo’s latest HOT Show? I know Andy is a big fan of you and Tarz.

Tina: YES! I can not believe that on his talk show, “Watch What Happens Live”, Andy Cohen created a series of crazy Tina-clips from some of the episodes, declared he loved me, and talked about his crush on Tarz!! That was SO AWESOME! The clip of this is on my youtube page if you want to see it!1

ASIANCE: Who are (is) your favorite star(s) on Bravo (besides yourself :))?

Tina: Um, that would have to be, TARZ! Lol! But besides my “bravolebrity” (yes, that’s what they call us) hubby, I LOVE Kathy Griffin! She’s my girl-crush! Now that Kathy and I are both part of the Bravo family, Tarzbetter hope I don’t meet her some day!

ASIANCE: Where did “Tarzina” (Tarz& Tina) meet? (saw a little bit about it but if you could elaborate!)

Tina: There is actually a fun video that Bravo shot of us about how we met!

We basically met through my older cousin, who used to work with Tarz. He used to tease her and say that he really wanted to meet that “hot” Tina-cousin of hers from the music videos, (though he really had zero interest in me but just enjoyed playfully teasing and annoying her). She was not worried about introducing us, since she knew I was only interested in marrying an Indian (since I figured no non-Indian would put up with my daily Bollywood music and my Indian food and my addiction to Bollywood movies and all that!) So, she brought him to a party that I had when I got signed to Sony music. That night, Tarz says we had a deep and meaningful conversation, but all I remember is putting my hand on his pecs as I was talking to him and thinking “wow, these are some amazing pecs”. I mean, it was my Sony record deal party so naturally, I was wasted!! Lol! Anyway, we ended up talking after that night and our instant chemistry was the most perfect and unbelievable thing I’ve ever experienced. I actually moved in with him on the first date which was completely the opposite of anything I’d ever dreamed I would do, and we had our Indian religious ceremony pretty much right away-which was over five years ago now in January of 2008. I thank god we had that ceremony right away because my precious, angelic mom, (who danced away like crazy that day in Jan ’08), tragically passed away later that year.

ASIANCE: What does Tarz do for a living?

Tina:Tarz has a media technology company called “Pandoodle” (www.Pandoodle.com) and has invented some brilliant game-changing technology! Although Tarz has done everything from being on “category_iding Light” to underwear modeling, his real passion is being a huge brilliant tech geek! For example, while he was on category_iding Light, he was also managing an entire huge tech team at Barnes & Nobles.com-and he was like 20 years old at the time! When I met Tarz, I did that awful thing that you are not supposed to do where you judge a book by its cover. I figured this blond hair blue eyed surfer-looking dude has to be kind of dumb! I absolutely learned my lesson! He even learned to read and write hindi in ONE night! (That actually made me feel pretty dumb since it took me 3 months to learn!)

ASIANCE: How did Tarz propose?

Tina: Our proposal story was more like an SNL parody skit. There was no surprise element since we were talking about getting married just a few weeks after we met. (Also, I’m a total Type-A control freak, so there was NO way I was going to let him pick out my ring!) So basically, on New Years, I was performing in Houston and Tarz was with me. After the show, in our hotel room, we did a parody of the most cliché and cheesy ways that couples propose, such as hiding the ring in a piece of cake or a glass of champagne. We would act it out and then just crack ourselves up. The “proposal” was actually the perfect reflection of who we are-two moronic goofballs!

ASIANCE: Where was your honeymoon?

Tina: I actually LOVED our original honeymoon idea! I wish I could take credit for it, but this was all Tarz’s idea! Instead of sitting on a beach somewhere, eating and boozing it up everyday and coming home 5 pant sizes bigger, he thought of the idea of spreading out our honeymoon over the entire first year by doing 1 crazy thing that was out of our comfort zones, every month, for 12 months! You definitely see some of our crazy honeymoon adventures on the show! So far, we’ve seen month 1, where we got matching tattoos in honor of my Ma. That was insanity for me since I’m not a “tattoo” kind of gal. I was like “how do I make this tattoo more “me”? Do I need to get a chain wallet now? Start riding a motorcycle maybe”? Lol. Then there was the AK-47 honeymoon-total insanity! Then, for one of our honeymoon adventures coming up on the show, you may see a lot more of us then you ever, ever wanted to see-that’s all I’m saying!

ASIANCE: What did your family say when they found out that you were marrying a non-Indian?

Tina: Back when my incredibly beautiful mom was alive, my dad was a lot happier, (as opposed to the angry, broken-hearted guy you see on the Bravo show that has battles with Tarz). My parents have always been incredibly supportive of whatever made me happy. When I first told my parents about Tarz, they just said “if he makes you as happy as you’re telling us, then we love him already”. When they actually first met him, they saw for themselves what an absolute sweetheart he is, and that was that! It’s only now that my dad, after losing his precious wife of 37 years of a daily blissful marriage, that you see my dad objecting to Tarz. He is just unhappy, angry, and broken overall. You see some of their horrible battles on the Bravo show-and dad does not hold back.

ASIANCE: Are you pregnant yet? 🙂

Tina: I sure hope so! We never have any idea of what will be on the show, so we’re waiting to find out with you guys! 😉 Last week on the show, we found out we sadly were not pregnant, and we visited my doctor to see what we’ve been doing wrong. We’re hoping a future episode will bring us good news! It’s like “Bravo! Just tell us! Do we buy a crib or do we not?!” Lol!! 😉

ASIANCE: Have you picked out baby names?

Tina: Yup, we certainly have names for both genders! Both names were chosen by Tarz, and I immediately thought they were perfect! He also said the first baby should be a “Sugandh” rather than his last name, since I grew up performing with my family, “The Sugandh Family” so the name represents something dear to me! I must say choosing baby boy and girl names is a lot easier when you marry someone who’s pretty much exactly like you and has the same taste! (Oh, you didn’t actually want to know what the names were, did you?) 😉

ASIANCE: Tell us the details of “Tarzina”s wedding? I know it was a Bollywood style wedding. Did you each incorporate various parts of your own culture?

Tina: Our wedding was ALL Bollywood! Tarz is a Bollywood freak! He reads and writes hindi, loves Indian food, and even cries at Bollywood movies. (Don’t tell him I told you that though! Lol!) We had our wedding at our peaceful lake house in South Carolina (as we have residences in LA, NY, and SC). It was traditional, colorful, totally sparkly, with a horse and carriage bharat with crazy neighbors dancing on their roofs to live dhols-the whole shebang! I actually did not know about the neighbors dancing on their roofs until I saw it on the Bravo show! It was amazingly beautiful, and was shown on the season premiere episode of our Bravo show! It’s worth taking a minute to go to my website and check out the entire wedding team we used, as all my wedding vendors were incredible!!

ASIANCE: How did your dad get such great dance moves? We hear he is quite popular on the show!

Tina: OMG! My dad is such a huge part of the show! He did not appear at all in one episode, and fans of the show were actually upset!! The show is called “Newlyweds” people!! LOL! Regarding his dance moves, my dad just has some serious personality and creativity while dancing as he just goes nuts and dances like he is completely wasted, even when there’s no liquor in site! He sometimes overdoes it though. For example, at our reception, he literally picked up and spun around our trainer from NYC! Our trainer, Mister Abs, is solid as a frickin’ rock and I have no clue what dad was thinking! (His back was wondering the same thing the next day…OUCH).

ASIANCE: How is your career going? You are a big Bollywood pop star..We interviewed you in 2011!! Tell us what you are up to!

Tina: I’ve definitely has some incredible experiences in the music industry and I have music videos on my website (www.TINAworld.com) with everyone from Fat Joe to Ringo Starr! But recently, I’ve had to be in hiding for a while! With this show, Bravo did something that has never been done in reality TV before, which was filming four diverse couples for literally 365 days-our entire first year of marriage! So for about a year and a half, I had to keep a low profile, and not reveal that I was on the show. If you watch the show, you know I have a VERY big mouth, so that was a very tough secret for me to keep! Now that we are out of “hiding”, who knows what the future holds? Possibilities are endless! I have been performing since I was five years old, so I’d love to continue to use whatever voice this show gives me in order to help give back. One of my next performances will be at the amazing breast cancer charity, The Pink Runway 2013. (www.PinkRunway.com)

ASIANCE: Give us girls some marriage advice!!!

Tina: Here’s some advice-watch our Bravo show, and do NOT do or say what I do! Lol! Seriously though, the one thing that Tarz and I have down is that we are 100% open with each other. We throw our egos out the window and let our guards totally down, and we always openly verbalize, right away, when we are even the teeniest bit hurt, jealous, or insecure (which mostly are feelings that I have way more than him as he is way more secure a person than me!) A marriage is so much easier when there is zero built up bitterness, and I believe there is no room at all for ego in a marriage! But you have to marry your best friend in order to be 100% open, (which would be my second piece of advice!)

ASIANCE: Anything else you would like to add? Please feel free!

Tina: Yes! Tarz and I love talking to everyone! We live-Tweet during every episode, and would love to hear from you all on facebook/twitter/etc! Reach out to us and tell us we suck, or tell us you love us-just talk to us! All of my links are at www.TINAworld.com, and all of Tarz’s links are at www.Tarzu.com Lastly, thank you so much for this interview!!!