Be it ‘avoid-the-arc-lights’ style or ‘be-yourself’ style of raising children, celebrity parents have many weapons up their arsenal, discovers Shilpa Manjal.
When he was asked what his son Junaid’s plans were with respect to joining Bollywood as an actor, Aamir Khan replied, “Aaj kal bacche sunte kahan hai?” evoking peals of laughter from the audience. Was he being candid with the media or actually speaking his heart out, we’d never know but his peer Saif Ali Khan sure used no tact when answering a similar question about his daughter Sara.
“She’s still studying and later she can join if she wishes to. If I had one piece of advice to give her, it would be watch her weight. She loves her pizza too much.” Ouch!
Move aside, Hollywood’s resident ‘elimination communication’ expert Gisele Bundchen and ‘pre-mastication’ specialist Alicia Silverstone. Make way for desi celebrity parents. Whether it is ‘avoid-the-arc-lights’ style or ‘be-yourself’ style, these parents have a dozen weapons up their arsenal.
I-won’t-forget-myself style
Thirty-nine and married for a dozen years, Mandira Bedi didn’t think her baby would bring on the blues. Within a month of delivering Vir, she was experiencing postpartum depression and was brave enough to admit it. But she picked herself up soon enough.
Now, even at 42, she looks like a yum mum. Within three years, Mandira has launched her collection of sarees and is back to the screen. She has also been talking about adopting a girl child. What seems to have worked for her is focusing on herself, besides her baby.
Shilpa Shetty, too, belongs here. Very much the doting mother to her son Viaan, she is back to her pre-pregnancy self and has been multitasking as a producer, a reality-show judge and an IPL team owner.
Live-life-your-style
Mahesh Bhatt has a prized treasure and it’s a note written by daughter Alia. “Dear Papa. I love you sooo much. Thank you for not helping me at all during the filming of SOTY (Student of the Year). Love, love, love... Alia Bhatt.” The filmmaker believes that it helps when parents give their children wings and not crutches. He also dislikes the sense of indebtedness that parents tend to burden their children with. Filmmaker Amole Gupte and Deepa Bhatia have pretty much brought up their son Partho on the same lines. Even though he has worked in two films, Partho is like a regular child. He pursues his passion of playing the guitar and his parents leave every decision of his life to him.
Social-media-announcing style
Sreedevi has discovered a new side to her, post English Vinglish. The actress, who had never let her daughters Jhanvi and Khushi out in the media, created quite a stir when she posted family pictures of the ladies in swimwear from a beach resort on the New Year. The mantra being a family that poses and tweets together stays together?
Abhishek Bachchan’s Twitter snap on Aaradhya’s first birthday was known not so much for her cuteness, as for his stiffness, holding her like a prized trophy! Add to that the zealous SRK, who regularly puts up pictures of Aryan and Suhana. On a recent post on FB he wrote, “Missing my kids a lot today…so being a boring parent and showing their pics…sorry.”
The LOL-ing style
Farah Khan and Shirish Kunder’s parenting style ought to be in a different league altogether! They always find enough opportunities to laugh at themselves and the antics of their children. Heard this one? “My son who's two minutes older than his two sisters, often tells them ‘when I was your age’ and then explains what he did two minutes ago.” And with triplets, the opportunity to LOL comes sooner than one can, probably, imagine.
The fashion-icons style
What do you see when you see baby Aaradhya? Coordinated shoes, cute hair accessories to go with the pink dress. Mum Aishwarya sure knows to dress up her baby.
Sushmita Sen’s daughter Renee is turning out to be another stylish girl, taking after her mother. She is already styling her own looks, while sister Alisah is picking up the threads. Put Sanjay and Manyata Dutt’s Iqra and Shahraan in there and we have the knee-high fashion icons of the industry.