Ram’s weight gain used to give me sleepless nights: Gautami

Akash Wadhwa (BOMBAY TIMES; November 9, 2023)

Back to facing the camera, this time for her reels on social media, Gautami Kapoor says she is loving the trend of preparing dance reels for her Instagram. In an interview, the Ghar Ek Mandir actress spoke about making a comeback to acting, why she doesn’t do TV anymore and how she was worried at one point about husband Ram Kapoor’s weight issues. Read on...

Ram often posts videos, catching you off guard, like the recent one where you had a face mask on. How do you react to it?
Well, I will also turn to social media to take my revenge for the kind of videos he posts of me! But Ram has always been like this... when we were dating, when we got married and even now. In fact, this sense of humour is what attracted me to him. And in reality, even I am crazy like him and our kids are like we have had enough of you guys (laughs).

While Ram may be fitter now, was his weight a cause of concern, especially since you are quite health-conscious yourself?
I was worried because television really took a toll on him in terms of health. Whatever he is today is because of the medium, but he had to pay a price in terms of family life and health. When we got married, Ram was one of the fittest guys in the industry. Of course, his fans loved him despite the weight gain. He has always been comfortable in his skin, but yes, his weight gain used to worry me and give me sleepless nights. Thankfully, one day he decided to get fit again and he has lost oodles of weight now.

You seem to be enjoying making dance videos on your social media handle...
Being a fitness freak, sometime back I tried Zumba and I started enjoying dancing. A year ago, my Zumba teacher asked me to do a reel with him and I had no idea what a social media reel was. It was on Kesariya and that reel got me massive views. Dancing was number one on my bucket list. Now I plan to learn Bollywood and hip-hop dance forms.

You started your career with television, but have kept away from TV shows for many years now. Why?
My kids have grown up now and I’m open to doing TV shows. I do get calls for shows, but it’s not the kind of work I would like to do on the medium. When I ask them about the role, they say hero ki maa ka role hai, ya bhabhi ka, but I ask them again ki role kya hai? Unfortunately, they do not get my question as characters other than leads are not given importance on television.

Why did you take a break from acting all these years?
I did Parvarish and Tere Sheher Mein in 2015 on TV, but at that time my kids were really small, especially my son. And that decision took a toll on him as he was lost, since both his parents were busy with work. So, I decided to step back a little and concentrate on my kids. But I’m back now and shooting for two OTT projects. In the past, I also did the film Satyameva Jayate 2 with John Abraham, but the film didn’t do well and my role didn’t come into focus.

On television, you come from a time when there was no game of ratings for a show, and back then shows never went off air within months of their launch. How do you see this trend now?
Content back then was so good on television that rating ka kisi ko yaad bhi nahi rehta tha. But today the competition is so fierce and cutthroat that good content gets lost because of this rating game.