E-Paper
My sister’s keeper: Janhvi Kapoor celebrates big-sister energy
What does being an elder sibling mean? For Janhvi Kapoor it’s about being protective, paving the way, being vulnerable. She opens up on life with Khushi Kapoor
Older siblings will agree: Firstborns are essentially the family guinea pigs. The siblings that come after have it easier: They get to stay out later, borrow clothes, take more risks, get bailed out of bad decisions, even kiss more frogs, somehow.
The older ones? They’re the ones managing the activities, sorting out the messes, holding on to the secrets, keeping the peace – not quite the parent, but rarely the baby.
Even film families aren’t immune. “Older siblings just have it way harder,” admits Janhvi Kapoor, 26, older sister to actor Khushi Kapoor, 23. They’re both daughters of late actor Sridevi and producer Boney Kapoor. “We are the experiment for our parents. With us, they’re overstrict, overcautious, overinvolved. It’s the first time they are doing this so we, the firstborns, are in the line of fire.”
Janhvi Kapoor made her acting debut in 2018 with Dhadak, a Hindi remake of the 2016 Marathi film Sairat. She’s starred in the 2020 hit Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020), played the ghost in Roohi (2021), even a woman trapped in a freezer in Mili (2022). Khushi Kapoor is one film old, she debuted in Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies (2023). “Khushi is definitely dad’s favourite,” says Janhvi Kapoor, with a laugh in her voice.
Early-mover advantage
Janhvi Kapoor recalls the time she was 14, and desperately wanted bangs. Her mother was quite particular about the young girls getting their hair cut. So, Kapoor made the mistake nearly every teen has: She cut her own hair into a fringe. “I walked around looking like Salman Khan from Tere Naam,” she says, laughing at the memory.
But when Khushi Kapoor was around the same age and wanted a new style, she simply booked a salon appointment. The rules had been relaxed. “Mom and Khushi were laughing about it and all I could think was, ‘What about me? You didn’t speak to me for months after I got bangs!’”
Firstborns have subtle superpowers. They’re more generous, having had to divvy up toys and attention early. The Kapoor home had the usual rules: Janhvi couldn’t borrow Khushi’s toys. “But Khushi could play with mine and I would have to understand because she was the younger one. She could throw a fit and get away with it. Wait. That still happens!”
For the most part, Kapoor says the siblings have been a solid team. They’d re-enact movie scenes for fun, though there would inevitably be a fight over who got to play Deepika Padukone’s character, Shantipriya from Om Shanti Om (2007). They’d put up “art exhibitions” of their paintings at home, and ask people to pay as they left. “We were running a money-making racket at a young age!”
After they watched Chak De! India (2007), they got hockey sticks and used an ice-cube as a puck, insisting it was ice hockey. “There was water all over the floor and Khushi slipped and chipped her tooth. Of course, I got yelled at for it. I’d usually be scolded for not looking out enough for her. Even if I was in the other corner of the room.”
Kapoor says it’s shaped who she’s become as a grown-up. She’s learnt to let go of the petty things in a fight. She’s also extra protective of her sister. The two went to the same school. Kapoor says that every time she found out that a student had not been nice to her sister, or that a friend of a friend made a mean comment, she’d get into Mama Bear mode. “So much so that Khushi was scared to tell me that someone had bullied her, because she knew I would yell at them in the school corridor,” says Kapoor.
Right back at you
As most older siblings realise, the protectiveness works both ways. The sisters have bickered, argued, fought. But they’ve also covered up for each other. “It’s a sister thing: Your whole equilibrium goes for a toss when you argue with them,” says Kapoor. “We look out for each other a lot, especially after Mom’s passing,” says Kapoor. They lost her mother in 2018, when the daughters were 20 and 17.
Some older-sibling traits are hard to shake. Kapoor says that when she has trouble sleeping, which happened a lot during the lockdown, she sleeps in Khushi’s room. “In her bed, even though she hates that. But she’d make sure I slept, and is always there when I’m low or crying.”
In return, if Kapoor gets a text from her sister, asking for advice, she says she’ll “drop everything in the world to be with her.” It doesn’t happen often. Contrary to most stereotypes about second-born kids, “Khushi is far more independent, and far less needy than I am,” says Kapoor. She admits to being the more naive, sensitive and spontaneous of the two. “The fact that Khushi has the maturity that I should, but don’t, is something I can never wrap my head around,” says Kapoor.
So in some ways, Kapoor is glad that her younger sister is so level-headed. It means that she’s less likely to make the same professional mistakes Kapoor did. “When I was starting out in the industry, I was emotionally all over the place as we had just lost Mom,” Kapoor recalls. “Khushi has seen me trust people too much, rely on people’s word,” she says. “I should have taken her advice more. She the more confident and sensible one. I am beginning to see that she sees reason better.”
Team spirit
Kapoor says that people might find it surprising how much the siblings mother each other. “We cuddle a lot and watch old movies together; movies that got featured in Kanan and Biswa’s Pretentious Movie Reviews YouTube series,” says Kapoor. “When I started working in 2017, I didn’t realise how much she needed to have me around. Now, I do. There was a phase in the first two years of my career, when Khushi was studying abroad, that I assumed that she didn’t need me as much. But she does. So, I’ve been prioritising her.”
It doesn’t matter, then, that Kapoor has a three-year head start in life. She plays cricketer MS Dhoni’s wife, Sakshi Dhoni, in Sharan Sharma’s Mr. & Mrs. Mahi, which releases in April. She has pivotal roles in Sudhanshu Saria’s Ulajh and Telugu action thriller Devara: Part 1, which she hopes will release this summer.
Khushi Kapoor, meanwhile is finding her way in the industry, months after making her debut. And the two have found new stories to share about their working lives. “I like coming home and seeing her wrapped up in a fluffy blanket on sofa, watching something stupid, surrounded by all her dogs. We don’t even have to speak. I just snuggle in the blanket with her, as her dogs bark around us. It’s my safe space.”
