Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; June 7, 2019)

Arjun Kapoor has not been very vocal about his personal life, but in a recent chat with BT, the actor spoke about family, marriage plans and his relationship with Malaika Arora. Excerpts...

The fact that Malaika is older than you has been the talking point for trolls...
I wouldn’t even want to speak about this and give it importance. It doesn’t matter to me, so I don’t want to justify anything.

While you haven’t spoken about your relationship, you didn’t try to hide it either…
I respect the fact that the media has been so respectful about our relationship. We are not hiding anything either. I am in a good personal and professional space. I hope it continues this way. I don’t want to go into the details right now. There has to be dignity in the way you conduct yourself in a relationship, and I want to maintain that. I would like to talk about it as time unfolds rather than jumping the gun. We have opened the doors to the world to know that we are together. When the time is right, I will go into details and speak about it.

Speculations about your marriage continue...
It’s people’s job to speculate and mine to clarify. Log shaadi ke baad takle hotey hain. Main shaadi ke dauran takla nahi hona chahta. (He’s shooting for a film, for which, he has shaved his head). I am not interested in getting married right now. I am 33 and marriage is not the be all and end all of a relationship. There’s more to discover and explore about each other.

Do you believe in marriage?
Even though I come from a broken home, I believe in marriage. I see a lot of happily married couples around. I believe it is a good option to have. But that doesn’t mean you can jump the gun and go straight to it. Life has to lead you to it. You have to discover things, enjoy the relationship’s ups and downs, and then see where it takes you.

Sonam (Kapoor) is married and so is Ranveer (Singh). So many celeb marriages happened in the past two years. Is there any peer pressure to tie the knot?
Peer pressure hota hai pehli drink peeney ke liye. Shaadi ke liye peer pressure nahi hota. That’s a teenage thing. When you are mature enough to take decisions on your own, peer pressure doesn’t matter. Nobody can ever tell me what to do. You need to feel these things from within. That’s the way it should be. Well-wishers can always tell you what they think. They are there to help you out, but at the end of the day, I know my family and friends have always been respectful of who I am as a person. They will always be supportive, but nobody ever tells me that you must do something because everybody else is doing it.



You spoke about coming from a broken home. The aftermath of a tragedy (Sridevi’s death) got your sister Anshula and you closer to Janhvi and Khushi. How would you describe the bond that you all share today?
We are still discovering each other. It’s not easy. It’s still work in progress. By the grace of God, people have been kind enough to have allowed us that space to grieve and come together, learn about each other. They are very good kids. I ideally wouldn’t have wished to meet them in these circumstances, but maybe we have to make the best out of the worst situation. The other day, Janhvi had come over for dinner. She felt bad that she wasn’t around for the release of my recent film. A year ago this relationship didn’t exist. It’s nice to have more people around you who support and encourage you and who you can share the smallest things of your life with. My dad feels happy that the four of us get along so well. It makes his life slightly simpler, even though he has to deal with most of it alone. At the end of the day, he has lost a partner.

We, as kids, can only support him. This has brought our entire family together, not just the four of us. Anil chachu, Sunita chachi, Sanjay, Maheep, Sonam, Rhea... it’s like we all have become extra protective of each other. A loss makes you realise how delicate and unpredictable life is, which is a reality.

You lost your mother (Mona Kapoor) early on. Who became your support system after that?
It has always been my sister Anshula. The silent support is sometimes more important than the vocal one. We didn’t have any support system except for each other at that point in time. I diverted my mind and attention to work, while Anshula took care of the house. I didn’t want Janhvi and Khushi to suffer the same way. I had my friends and family, but I didn’t engage with them enough. I signed five films and jumped into it. My friends, family, staff and father (though we didn’t live in the same home) did whatever they could for me at that point. I have relied on everyone in small ways. Knowing that they were around gave me courage.