Family portrait: Bollywood’s cool star kids make friends with new-age stepmoms
Hanging out together over champagne, calling up for a heart-to-heart chat, getting groomed for the movie debut — these families do it all together.
Refuting reports that she shared a strained relationship with her step-child, Maanayata Dutt shared a gorgeous photo with Trishala, the daughter of her actor husband Sanjay Dutt from his previous marriage to Richa Sharma. Maanayata’s photo caption read: “The lionesses. Dutt ladies in the house... New York times at its best.” When Trishala was asked about her equation with Maanayata, she had earlier told us, “I can talk to Maanayata about anything. When dad’s unavailable, I talk to her. She’s a great mother, a great friend.”
New mum Kareena Kapoor Khan, who recently gave birth to baby Taimur, has been spotted partying hard and clicking goofy pictures with hubby Saif’s older kids Sara Ali Khan and Ibrahim, from his first marriage with former actor Amrita Singh. A while ago, there were reports that Bebo was taking a keen interest in preparing and grooming Sara for her big Bollywood debut. She even said in an interview, “We’re like best friends. Saif refuses to come out with us. Sara’s my bar-hopping partner. We often chat over a glass of champagne. That’s the way Saif wanted and that’s the way I wanted it. Whenever she wants to call me, she does. At times, when Saif isn’t around and she doesn’t want to talk to him, she talks to me. I enjoy my equation with her.”
Actor Aamir Khan’s wife Kiran Rao has never shied away from getting photographed with her husband’s children Ira and Junaid Khan, from first wife Reena Dutta. Be it the success party of their films or any other public events, they’ve always come across as a happy family.
Relationship expert Dr Kamal Khurana explains, “It’s about how the new member (second wife) is introduced in the family. If there’s already lot of bias and judgment, then it’s difficult to accept her. So any change is resisted. One shouldn’t try to force any relationships and there’s a clear possibility of creating friendships, instead. Also, when there’s less of an age gap, a stepmom and a step-child can even share a friendly sibling-type relationship.”
There are quite a few more ‘step-relations’ in Bollywood — Pankaj Kapoor’s second wife Supriya Pathak and his son Shahid Kapoor, from his marriage to Neelima Azim; Mahesh Bhatt’s second wife Soni Razdan and daughter Pooja Bhatt, from his marriage to Kiran Bhatt; Javed Akhtar’s second wife Shabana Azmi and son Farhan Akhtar, from his marriage to Honey Irani. They all get along fine.
Clearly, the evil stepmom of the older Hindi films was more a work of fiction than a representation of reality. Star kids have defied the perception that one can’t be friends with their step-parents.
An exception is actor Arjun Kapoor, the son that producer Boney Kapoor had with his first wife Mona Shourie Kapoor. He openly admitted that he never shared cordial relations with stepmom Sridevi. Asked about their rapport with each other, Arjun once said on a chat show, “She’s always be my father’s wife, and can never become my mother.”
Another example of a less-than-ideal family situation was that of Hema Malini, who was rarely spotted in the company of husband Dharmendra’s sons, Sunny and Bobby Deol, from his former wife Parkash Kaur. When Hema and Dharmendra’s elder daughter Esha Deol got married in 2012, none of her step-brothers attended the wedding functions.
Khurana says that the manner of the break-up of the first marriage impacts how well the second wife is received by the step-children. “How the divorce has happened plays an important role here,” he explains. “If a child has had difficulty with the father leaving his/her mother, it becomes difficult for them to accept a step-parent. When any decision is taken within a family, it should be discussed well and conveyed [to the child] and some room for acceptance should be created. If it’s already a dysfunctional family, a new marriage will create even more disruption.”
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