Shraddha Kapoor belongs to one of the most illustrious film families. While she had her father Shakti Kapoor earn prominence with his antagonistic roles and even impeccable comic timing, her maternal family boasts of actors Tejaswini Kolhapure and Padmini Kolhapure, her aunts, and her grandfather Pandharinath Kolhapure. She’s also the grand-niece of legendary singers, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.
At CNN News18’s Rising India She Shakti: Women Who Make Us Who We Are in New Delhi, Shraddha opened up on how being born and brought up in a family full of creative people helped create ‘a strong foundation’ for her and helped her in creating a path for herself without conforming to an image of a movie star.
“When my first films didn’t do well, there were a lot of people who told me that as an actress if my first two films don’t do well, I’ll never get any more films. But I didn’t have anyone telling me so in my household. I feel like that was a very strong foundation for me. A lot of my thinking came from the conversations I’ve had at home. It wouldn’t strike me that an actress has to be or behave a certain way. I’m very happy that my foundation made me think very differently. And this applies to both genders,” she said.
A gender-neutral upbringing also helped her shape her outlook on life as a human being and an actor. Talking about how there was no discrimination between her and her brother, actor Siddhant Kapoor, she shared, “The way that you think starts in your household. Your perspective and the way you look at life starts at a very young age. So, I feel very proud to say that I come from a household where my brother and I were treated equally.”
The Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar actress added, “I was never told, ‘Arrey, aap ki maasi ek aurat hai aur dekho unhone kya kaamyaabi paayi hai life mein… aurat bann ke kaamyaabi paayi hai.’ That was never a thought in my household. My father has achieved great things for himself. My maasi has achieved great things for herself. And I was told that I was also supposed to strive for that.”
When asked if acting was always on the cards for her considering her film lineage, she said that growing up in a family of artists helped her develop a knack for the creative field. “This was it because this is what I’ve seen in my household growing up. I’ve grown up with the maternal side of my family predominantly – my maushis, my grand-aunt and my nana who was a very well-renowned classical musician. So, I’ve basically grown up in a family where the members were in the creative arts. And that’s all that I knew. It was a natural fit to get into the same field,” she elaborated.
Shraddha went on to reveal that much like many youngsters, she too developed a sense of rebellion in herself where she kept telling people that she wouldn’t follow into her aunts’ and father’s footsteps and become an actor. “If your family member is a doctor or an actor and people at school tell you that you’re going to be one too, you naturally have a rebellious side and you say that you aren’t going to go in the same field. I also had the same side to me. When people told me that I, of course, am going to be an actress, I would say a no but deep down, I always wanted to be one. It organically happened that I developed a passion for it as well,” she remarked.
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