Mumbai: Life was not easy for Anshula Kapoor after her parents, Boney Kapoor and Mona Kapoor separated.
During a recent interview with Nayandeep Rakshit, Anshula opened up about her traumatic days at school, when she was alienated by her classmates because of her father’s second marriage with Sridevi.
“Going back to school, of course things changed. You have to keep in mind that our parents separated in the 1990s. India, in the 90s, was a closed economy, and also, we were very rooted in tradition. Our tradition speaks about one marriage, one family, lasting for life. Divorces were unheard of, and very uncommon. Separations were even more uncommon, even in a city like Mumbai. When our parents separated, it took people a while to understand that there is nothing inherently wrong with anybody’s character. It became very difficult for that to seep into people’s minds,” Anshula shared.
She continued, “I was in the first standard, and what started happening was there were families who didn’t want to associate with what was happening in our lives. They didn’t want their children to come into our house, and be part of any friction. In the 90s, you went to some child’s house after school, right? I remember that there was a drastic shift in the way that my classmates were behaving towards me, and the way that their families were behaving towards me. It was a very emotional and a very confusing time to be in school.”
During this difficult phase, she found support in her elder brother, Arjun Kapoor, who was in the secondary school at that time.
“It’s very difficult, as a child, to understand why you’re being alienated by others. Perhaps this is why I still don’t understand how to be a part of groups. I’ve always had to meander my way through life as an individual,” she added.
While speaking about her father’s absence during those formative years, she shared, “More than this, there was the confusion of not having dad at home, ever. Trying to deal with the reality of the family axis having shifted, and then not having any social access was very difficult. But I had mom, I had Arjun bhaiya, I had my cousins. Now, we’re a lot more open-minded.”
“Because of the partner that dad chose, unfortunately or fortunately, it became a lot more public, because they were both public figures. Had they not been that public, it would’ve been easier for us to deal with,” she shared, while talking about the public scrutiny surrounding her father’s second marriage.
Boney Kapoor and Sridevi tied the knot on June 2, 1996. They have two daughters Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor.
