‘Let’s give you children’: Ekta Kapoor says Jeetendra wanted her and Tusshar to marry for kids, they fulfilled his wish their way

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“When I was 17, I was always going out with friends, roaming around and bunking college. So, my dad told me that I had to either focus on my studies or do some work. Otherwise, he said he would get me married. That scared me so much that I felt I had to start working. It was like my dad had hung a sword over my head,” she said.

Ekta said she was enjoying life and didn’t want to settle down. “I was enjoying life a lot — sometimes partying, sometimes travelling. At 18, who wanted to get tied into the bond of marriage? I was like I don’t want to get into all this. I wanted to work, and even later I kept working and never got married,” she said.

She added that both she and Tusshar were extremely busy building their careers at the time. “I started working at 19. You can call it fate or whatever. Both of us were too busy working,” she said.

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When their father pushed them to marry

Ekta also joked that her father, veteran actor Jeetendra, wanted at least one of his children to get married so he could have grandchildren and she and Tusshar fulfilled that wish in their own way.

“Tusshar and I were discussing this because papa kept saying, ‘At least one of you should get married please.’ So I asked him, ‘Why do you want us to get married?’ He said, ‘For children.’ So I said, ‘Okay, let’s plan that for you.’ And then we gave him children,” Ekta said, referring to how she and Tusshar eventually became parents through surrogacy, a reproductive option that some individuals pursue with medical guidance and legal approvals.

In a media interaction in 2016, Ekta’s brother Tushar Kapoor had revealed that he welcomed son Lakshya via IVF. “I wanted to be a father. I met Dr. Firuza Parikh and she suggested this procedure. I was in a hurry to become a father. I am turning 40 in a few months, so I felt I was in the right stage to become a single parent and I went ahead with what was told to me,” he had said at the time. In 2019, Ekta also announced that she has welcomed son Ravie via surrogacy. Indian surrogacy laws were changed in 2021 via the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, which now only allows altruistic surrogacy and no commercial surrogacy. The couple must obtain an eligibility certificate from the appropriate authorities as well.

About motherhood

Talking about her son Ravie, Ekta said balancing work and parenting often brings its own challenges.

“Mother’s guilt is a real thing,” she said. “My son has fit into my life in such a way that even when I work, he is with me. He comes to the office for meals. Even if we have meetings going on, he will have dinner with me there. I may not be at home, but his dinner happens with me in the office,” she said.

Ekta added that spending time with him is especially important because she became a mother later in life. “My son’s time is very important to me because I became a mother late,” she said.

Ekta Kapoor’s daily routine

The producer also shared details about her packed schedule, revealing how she manages work and motherhood. “In the morning when my son goes to school, I wake up for about ten minutes for him and then go back to sleep. I wake up again at around 11 am and spend the next three hours on calls, mobile work and writing content,” she explained.

“After that I pick my son up from school, drop him home and go for a workout. By 4 pm I reach the office and then I work till around 4 am,” she said.

Ekta added that she often spends nearly twelve hours working at the office, especially late at night when she feels most creative. “I enjoy working at night because there are fewer phone calls and that’s when creativity really happens,” she said.