Arjun Kapoor’s parents, Boney Kapoor and Mona Shourie, separated when he was 10 years old. Later, his father fell in love with Sridevi and married her. In a recent interview with Raj Shamani in his podcast, Arjun opened up on how he handled this as a child.
Arjun Kapoor recalled the ‘traumatic’ time when his parents separated and said, “My parents split up when I was 10 years old. That’s something that, at that point, didn’t feel that would shape me and change the course of my entire life because I was dealing with it in real-time. But when I look back, there are a lot of things that…”
Arjun further explained how he never had a normal father-son relationship even before his parents divorced. “For example, my father was busy making two big films when that was happening. He was making Prem and Roop Ki Rani Choro Ka Raja. He was under a lot of pressure to complete those films and release them. So, we never had a normal father-son relationship where he came to school to pick me up or drop me off. It’s not that he didn’t try, but I never had that, and then the slip happened also. That is slightly traumatic when you look back and retrospect.”
Arjun added how his parents’ split affected his academics. “I was a naughty kid but I was very good with studies also, till I was in the fourth standard, I was very into it. And then the split happened. Now, when I look back, I couldn’t behave upset and spoiled and throw a shit fit about it, the fact that I wanted this to not happen, but I think somewhere I lost interest in being good at education because I felt it was a rebellious feat. I chose to look away from that because I felt I didn’t need to do this. People were making their own choices. I also wanted to do this. I used to enjoy school and then I started hating it because a lot of people wanted to know what was happening at that point. Thankfully, social media was not there. So it was still a bit of normal murmuring. But I had very good friends and family, I never had to face those issues, it wasn’t like I was isolated.”
For context, Boney Kapoor fell in love with Sridevi while he was married to Mona Shourie. He divorced his first wife in 1996, and married Sridevi the same year. Talking about how he dealt with the situation, Arjun Kapoor said, “Initially maybe I must have tried to gain attention. But as I said, I had become very responsible. I became too aware. I matured ahead of my time because I wanted to make sure that I didn’t lose connection with my father. So I tried to process and analyse it… As long as he was happy with what he had done, I was okay with it. Even if I wasn’t ok with it, I rationalised it in my head at a young age. Thik hai, jo ho gaya woh ho gaya…”
See Also: Sridevi Birth Anniversary: Janhvi Kapoor Visits Tirupati, Khushi Kapoor Shares Childhood Pic As They Pay Tribute