Actor Ishaan Khatter once opened up about his childhood, his parents’ separation, and the powerful presence of his mother, Neelima Azeem, not just as a parent, but as an artist and a resilient woman. His words were a moving tribute to her strength, but they also held space for the unspoken weight of sacrifice that often comes with motherhood.
“Look, my mom is one of the strongest people I’ve ever seen in my life. She’s… you know… like, in the true sense, she’s like this fauji person.”
When Ishaan’s parents separated, he was too young to fully grasp the emotional implications. Yet, over time, he came to recognise the extraordinary balancing act his mother performed, raising children, maintaining her identity as an artist, and navigating life on her terms.
DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.
“I was very young when you speak of the separation and things like that… when my parents separated, I was very young. So it’s not like it was this… um… thing that I dealt with when I had a fully developed consciousness… But I think I’ve just always seen her… balance raising her kids and her personal life with being a professional… being an artist.”
Neelima Azeem’s legacy is etched in Indian classical dance and performance, having trained under Pandit Birju Maharaj and being featured on a national postage stamp at just 14. Ishaan acknowledged that both he and his brother Shahid Kapoor inherited her creative DNA, but the emotional imprint of her strength left an even deeper mark.
“She’s the first dancer in the family… She’s given her life — 20 years — to become an excellent dancer… all of what we do — my brother and I — we just got her DNA chord into us a little bit… but it’s all her,” he told Zoom.
Yet Ishaan also touched upon something many mothers, especially single ones, experience but rarely articulate.
“There is an inherent… I think… respect and sensitivity towards just understanding a woman and their journey, and how much they inevitably — in so many ways — have to sacrifice. Especially if you’re raising kids, especially if you’re a mother. It’s very difficult to understand, but even when it’s all hunky-dory and happy, there’s a lot of personal sacrifice there.”
According to counselling psychologist Srishti Vatsa, this perception of mothers as tireless and endlessly giving is often glamorised.
“Resilience in women is actually a response to chronic pressure. Many women are seen as resilient because they manage to keep going despite a lot of societal expectations. But this constant need to prove themselves takes a toll on them… rest feels like a luxury, and self-worth gets tied to external validation.”
In pop culture and even daily discourse, women like Neelima are often called “superwomen”, a label that, while seemingly complimentary, can do more harm than good.
“We give them labels like superwoman. But they just pile on more pressure,” Vatsa adds. “They make it harder for women to say, ‘I’m tired,’ or ‘I need help,’ or even, ‘I don’t want to do it.’ Over time, this repeated performance can erode the confidence which leaves women to question their value.”
Ishaan’s reflections are especially poignant because he doesn’t just acknowledge his mother’s endurance, he recognises the cost of it.
“They do it just as if it’s their farz, you know? They truly are superwomen in that way. And of course, that’s defined who I grew up to be — towards women.”
DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.
Ishaan Khatter spoke about his mother Neelima Azeem’s sacrifices after divorce (file) 
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