Shahid Kapoor, after four years of marriage with Mira Rajput Kapoor, says he realised it right at the start that she has her own individuality
Prashant Singh (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 20, 2019)

They got hitched over four years back (on July 7, 2015). Ever since, Shahid Kapoor and his wife, Mira Rajput Kapoor have been one of the most loved couples of Bollywood. Although the Delhi girl Mira never had any connection with the showbiz, she has — quite clearly — never seemed to be out of place while handling the media as well as paparazzi. And Shahid says that he knew it from the “first day itself.”

“Yes, I realised it on the first day itself — when we got done with the marriage rituals and stepped out for some pictures,” says the actor. “I remember looking at us together, and at that moment itself, I knew that she has her own individuality. Later too, when we came to Mumbai and hosted a small get-together for friends and some people from the [film] fraternity, she was extremely comfortable.”

Shahid, who is now on his way to complete five years of blissful marriage, feels the best thing is that his wife is “really comfortable in her own skin”. He explains: “Mira doesn’t feel the need to change and adjust. She is who she is, and people like her for that. She has never tried to be someone else and that’s a great thing about her. I always knew that she is going to find her own space and will become her own person.”

The Udta Punjab (2015) actor says he has always “sensed instinctively” that Mira won’t feel out of place within the set-up of showbiz. “I felt that when I noticed it for the first time itself because she is that kind of a person. People will get drawn to her and will be curious about her as she has that kind of a personality. And that’s great, and I think it’s so good that she can do it confidently,” says Shahid, who has two kids — daughter, Misha, and son, Zain — with Mira.

Work-wise, Shahid is busy with the prep of his next, the Hindi remake of the Tamil hit, Jersey, after the super success of Kabir Singh. It’s interesting to note that the actor feels “relieved” and “undeserving” vis-à-vis his last film’s success. Ask him about it and he says: “I feel relieved because I guess I was waiting for an extremely successful film [like this] for a long time. And undeserving, because I don’t think any actor can ever work hard enough to get the kind of love you get when a film does this kind of business.”

The Padmaavat (2018) actor goes on to call this success a result of “destiny, love and divine intervention”. He says: “when I saw the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday collections, I was like, ‘yes, we deserve it’. But when Monday collections came in, which was the highest non-holiday Monday in the history of Indian cinema, it really hit me, that it has nothing to do with me. It goes beyond anything that can be justified through any amount of work. This is destiny and I recognise that, and so I can’t take complete credit for it.”