Anushka Sharma made a public appearance after a long time at an event in Mumbai. The actress arrived for an exclusive ‘Yes Moms and Dads’ gathering where she interacted with mothers in her first media appearance after welcoming her second baby. At the event, hosted by Slurrp Farm, she opened up about feeling the pressure of being the perfect parent along with her cricketer husband Virat Kohli and teaching gratitude to their daughter Vamika and son Akaay.

Talking at the event, Anushka said, “There is also so much pressure to be like this perfect parent. We are not perfect parents, we will complain about things, and it is ok to admit it to them also. So, they know that you are flawed. Imagine kids having to live up to, ‘Oh my parents are like this’. So, owning your mistakes makes (it easier).”

She also emphasized on managing her children’s growing up years and teaching them how to be grateful of their privileges.

She said, “In my case, I have realized that my daughter is very young. And I don't think I can teach her anything. It is how we lead our lives. Are we showing gratitude to others in our daily life? Are we grateful for the things we have in life? Are we showing that as an example? Do we think this is enough? I think she has picked up on that, I don't think I can teach her anything. For them to learn gratitude, they have to see you being grateful. It is a very selfish space to say that I'll teach my child this and that, you have to be grateful, your child will follow suit. You just have to enjoy their childhood. If you ever see them showing disrespect, they are not showing disrespect, they are just being kids and you can gently guide them. Living by example is the only way to make sure they soak the good things from the environment,” she concluded.

Anushka who was last seen in Zero with Shah Rukh Khan in 2018 also mentioned how she got influenced by her daughter’s healthy routine and now swears by it. Vamika has her dinner in the evening and sleeps quite early. Anushka too followed suit.

About the benefits, she says, “I sleep better that way and feel fresh in the morning, there is less brain fog. So now the entire family does that. Sleeping on time and waking up early works. Kids give you cues. You just need to have space to accommodate that.”

She also opened up about losing out on social life after embracing parenthood, saying, “I can only hang out with people who do the same and these are very few people. So social life, you can forget about it. People invite us to dinner and I am like… You are probably eating a snack at the time people are having their dinner. Someday, occasionally you have to let it go, otherwise people will hate you,” she added.

When asked Anushka to describe herself as a mother, she signed off saying, “I think I am very chill. Lot of people won’t think that I am chill, but yes I am!”

Wamiqa Gabbi is winning praise for her Hindi debut, 'Grahan' that offers a retelling of the 1984 riots. She is set to follow it up with Anushka Sharma’s Mai. The Netflix show, led by Sakshi Tanwar, revolves around a middle-aged woman who is unwittingly swept into the underworld after she kills a mafia leader. “To be cast alongside such experienced actors is flattering,” says Gabbi.

Though she has headlined many Punjabi and South movies, she says Mai’s powerful material threw her off-guard. “It’s one of the shows where I am nervous every time I go to shoot. There’s a constant feeling that I hope I don’t mess it up.”

Bagging a Clean Slate production is a personal win for her as she has high regard for Sharma and her brother Karnesh’s choice of projects. “That the series is led by Sakshi Tanwar and produced by Anushka speaks volumes about its content,” she says, before quipping, “The fact that Anushka has named her daughter Vamika has nothing to do with my casting though.”

Often batting for environmental-friendly practices, Anushka Sharma was among the first Bollywood producers to implement waste segregation on the set of her projects. Now, the actor, who became a proud mother to daughter Vamika in January, is using her celebrity status to raise awareness about circular fashion. In a bid to reduce textile and consumer waste, the new mommy will share her maternity pieces in an online sale on Dolce Vee’s website today. The proceeds from the sale will go to the NGO, SNEHA that works towards improving maternal health and reducing neonatal morbidity. 

“During my pregnancy, I realised that this transient time is perfect to engage in the circular fashion economy. These are pieces that we wear for a few months. So, when I learned more about the resources that go into making them, I thought it was crucial to build an ecosystem through which we can buy our clothes from each other. For instance, if even one per cent of pregnant women in urban India bought one piece of pre-loved clothing over newly manufactured ones, each year, we can conservatively save about as much water a person drinks in over 200 years,” states the actor.

Sharma encourages her fans to adopt the small behavioural change that can have a large positive impact, adding, “I believe in sharing, and I am excited to see who will make these pieces their own.”

News about the Coronavirus vaccine roll out and ‘leaked’ WhatsApp chats can wait. A big the-nation-wants-to-know question has been rocking the trend charts this past week. “Have Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma named their baby Anvi?” Time will tell, or maybe the paps will — in case the parents don’t — but in the meantime the much-anticipated baby girl delivered unto people two Mondays ago has sent the Internet into a tizzy with at least thirty fan pages dedicated to ‘Anvi Kohli’, and even a few theories on the numerology and significance of the name on social networking sites.

In the world of social media and online news, star offspring are now more keenly followed than their celebrity parents. And in the case of a power couple like India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli and Bollywood’s leading actor-producer Anushka Sharma, their infant is not just blessed with two sets of celebrity genes but double the tabloid curiosity.

Never wanting for luxury or fame but wanting for privacy and getting none drove this celeb-couple-turned-parents to bring a new tactic to the fight. Something that the paps did not see coming. A luxury gift hamper from Anushka and Virat arrived at their doorstep last week stuffed with gourmet sweets, scented candles and a personalised note ‘to kindly not take or carry any content that has our child’ in what was clearly a desperate cry for privacy.

This made entertainment photographer Manav Manglani call off the chase. “We were waiting eagerly for Anushka and Virat’s newborn but after we received their request, I moved my men out of the hospital and from their house,” says Manglani. Drawing an ethical line and abiding by this plea wasn’t easy for this paparazzo known for pushing boundaries, quite literally. He and his team have furiously climbed walls to capture images of Taimur Ali Khan in his outfit of the day — swimming trunks and arm floaties — splashing about in a pool with daddy Saif Ali Khan.

So who are these tiny A-listers who could one day star in ‘The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Kids’? Apart from Karan Johar’s twins Yash and Roohi, these include Aaradhya (Abhishek and Aishwarya Bachchan’s daughter), AbRam (Shah Rukh Khan’s son), Inaaya Khemu (Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu’s daughter), Misha and Zain (Shahid and Mira Kapoor’s children), Ziva (Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s daughter), Riaan and Rahyl (Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh’s sons).

With a count of about ten lakh followers, or maybe more (and at least 50 fan pages ranging from ‘Taimurholics’ and ‘Taimurgalaxy’ to one dedicated to his ‘supernanny’ Savitri and another that uses Taimur’s pictures to draw attention to pressing issues in the country!) — Taimur is the undisputed ruler of the baby celebrity fan game. Since his birth in 2016, the toddler has been constantly broadcast into people’s phones with fans going bonkers over “cutie pie Tim-Tim’’ smashing his face into an ice-cream cone or waddling down the street, squealing ‘no photos’. Things took a bizarre turn when he even landed on a toy store shelf as a doll for sale.

In 2018, Kareena had opened up about the media attention that Taimur gets. “I do not like the fact that every day, Taimur’s moves are being monitored,” she said, adding that she did not know how to put an end to it. And then added that Taimur was “kind of getting used to” being a paparazzi favourite. “Of late, he has started posing,” she laughed.

Lensman Yogen Shah calls Taimur “the new Murphy boy” — the chubby cheeked mascot of Murphy Radios and poster baby for expecting mothers in the ‘70s. “Taimur was the first time that a star kid came prominently in view and people’s affection for Taimur grew into an addiction with every picture we shot. People then wanted to see more star kids,” says Shah.

Shah, who has lived through the heyday of paparazzi photography, says the craze for pictures of star kids is both the cause and effect of online culture and a legion of entertainment portals. “The constant need to generate content led to trends like airport look and the gym look.” And then, along came the babies and eclipsed all those stars emerging from a workout or flight.

At a time when no week goes by in which the Internet isn’t treated to snapshots of these mini celebrities in onesies, hanging from their nanny’s lap or strutting into birthday parties, there seem to be multiple schools of thought that dictate how celebrity parents keep up/cope with this phenomenon. “Some celebrities are okay with their kids being celebrated because it brings positivity to their image especially if their careers or lives have been fraught with trouble. There are parents who fear ‘nazar’ and, therefore, duck for cover, and then there are those who don’t mind their kid being clicked on special occasions but not chased daily,” says photographer Viral Bhayani.

There’s a reason these photos are popular, says child psychiatrist Harish Shetty. “These images mark a shift from endless stories about love affairs and scandals and reinforces the idea of fidelity, child bearing and parenting. It helps people feel closer to an ideal,” he says. The paps agree. “In the last two years, pictures of a barebodied hero or a glamorous actress don’t fetch the kind of likes and comments we get for family pictures of stars walking, feeding or even towelling their kids.”

But to what extent can this intense media spotlight affect these children? “There is a risk of the child ending up arrogant or frustrated. The onus is on parents and teachers to maintain a balance in their interpersonal relationships and avoid giving them a free hand in everything,” says Swati Popat Vats, president of the Early Childhood Association. “As long as the child has regular friends to interact with, is exposed to the larger society and not isolated to a select circle, they will learn to navigate this attention and adulation,” adds Shetty.

And though legally in India, it’s not yet a crime to zoom into Inaya’s eyes or investigate Taimur’s French fries or review AbRam’s dance at his annual school function, calls from harried and pregnant celeb parents are driving some paparazzi to take a concerted step back. “There’s a need to discipline ourselves and not break laws or put them or ourselves in danger for a shot,” says Shah, recalling the time he was jolted into realisation when a bike-borne photographer chased a pregnant Kareena Kapoor around Bandra. “Also, Coronavirus has taught us the importance of not crossing our limits,” says Bhayani. Well, there’s nothing worse than getting cancelled by knee-high celebrities learning to dodge cameras before they learn their ABCs.

Wishes poured in from B-Towners congratulating Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli on the arrival of their baby girl yesterday. The cricketer took to social media to announce the news. “We are thrilled to share with you that we have been blessed with a baby girl. We thank you all for your love, prayers and good wishes,” he wrote. “Anushka and the baby are both healthy and we are feeling beyond blessed to start this new chapter of our lives. We hope that you can respect our privacy at this time (sic),” added Virat, who is currently on paternity leave.

“Welcome to the best phase of your lives @anushkasharma @virat.kohli (sic),” wrote Neha Dhupia, while Madhuri Dixit said, “Congratulations @virat.kohli @anushkasharma. May god shower his choicest blessings on you & your little angel (sic).” Riteish Deshmukh, Bipasha Basu, Rakul Preet Singh and Ishaan Khatter were also among those who wished the new parents.

Anushka and Virat, who had tied the knot in December 2017, had posted a picture on social media in August last year to announce the pregnancy. “And then we were three! Arriving Jan 2021,” they had said.