Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur) - Hindustan Times (Jaipur) - City
OF HATRED, HAPPINESS AND HALF-SIBLINGS
How do Bollywood families, with their children from multiple marriages, stack up in this area?
Actor Arjun Kapoor’s recent remarks about his half-sisters Jhanvi and Khushi has once again put the spotlight on half-siblings’ relationships in Bollywood. Replying to a question at an event, Arjun said, “We don’t really meet and spend time together, so [a relationship] doesn’t really exist.” Arjun, son of producer Boney Kapoor with his first wife Mona Kapoor, has also never acknowledged any family ties with the two girls’ mother, actor Sridevi, who is Boney’s second wife. Arjun called her “my father’s wife.” However, actor Shahid Kapoor has a very warm relationship with Ishaan Khattar, his half-brother from actor Neelima Azeem. And half-sisters Pooja and Alia Bhatt, who both have a father in filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, also appear to get along well. Just having a sibling from one parent’s second (or third) spouse is obviously not reason enough to like or dislike them. So what makes half-sibling relationships take off or crash? Dr Kamal Khurana, Delhi-based relationship counsellor, explains that each individual is different and no parent can force them to be in a defined relationship with their half-siblings. Also, bad is not the clear opposite of good. “That you’re not friends or not on cordial terms doesn’t make you enemies,” he says. As for the Deol family, brothers Sunny and Bobby, sons of veteran actor Dharmendra’s first wife Parkash Kaur, and their halfsisters Esha and Ahana, daughters of his second wife Hema Malini, used to share a happy bond. But the brothers skipped Esha’s wedding, showing that even good relationship may sour. That a bloodline doesn’t necessarily make two people siblings became evident when Prateik Babbar, the son of actor Raj Babbar with the late actor Smita Patil, said — despite having a half-brother in Aarya, Raj’s son with Nadira — said that he looked at actor Abhishek Bachchan as his big brother. The conclusion may be that family is not what one is born to, but what one chooses for oneself.