Sridevi did not allow daughters to watch her films because ‘she was shy’, recalls Khushi Kapoor: ‘We would watch them secretly’

Although Indian cinema has witnessed the arrival and departure of many actors since its inception, few have made the kind of impact that Sridevi did. With a career spanning more than 50 years, starting at the age of four, Sridevi showcased her versatility across a variety of genres and languages, leaving a profound mark wherever she worked. While she set the screens afire with every performance, in her personal life, Sridevi was a private, reserved person who found happiness in the simple joys of life and the company of those close to her. In fact, her younger daughter Khushi Kapoor recently revealed that Sridevi was so shy that she wouldn’t allow her daughters to watch her films. Khushi shared that she and her sister Janhvi Kapoor, hence, often had to watch their mother’s movies in secret.

“She actually wouldn’t let us watch them (her movies) at home; it was a bit tough. She would just feel a bit shy. So, Janhvi and I would have to watch them secretly in a room by ourselves. Regardless, we did watch a lot of her movies,” Khushi shared during a recent chat with Vickey Lalwani. When asked if she sought to emulate any part of her mother’s legacy, Khushi replied, “I don’t think so. As an actor, generally, I don’t think you should try to mimic another person’s performance. I don’t want to touch that (her mother’s) legacy. This is my separate journey and path. Also, I’m very new and still learning. I’m finding myself as I go. So, I don’t think following someone else would make that any easier.”

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When asked whether their father Boney Kapoor harbours partiality toward her, Khushi responded, “That’s because I’m the youngest in the family; so, as a father, he has some partiality towards me. I don’t think he’d admit it to anyone else, but everyone senses it a little bit. Although he loves all of us (Khushi and Janhvi, as well as their step-siblings Arjun Kapoor and Anshula Kapoor) the same, maybe he just has a soft spot in his heart for me.”

Upon the interviewer pointing out the time Boney cried after watching Khushi’s debut movie The Archies, she added, “He does get emotional. Recently, he saw some other work of mine — it was a song where I’m crying, and then he started crying as well. I guess, somewhere, it’s kind of bad that I liked the fact that he cried seeing me cry. But it means it made him feel something.”

Khushi Kapoor is currently gearing up for the release of her upcoming film Loveyapa, where she will share the screen with Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan.