Juhi Chawla recounts how Coronavirus pandemic cut short her trip to Austria, prompting hurried return to Mumbai with husband and son; informs daughter is in Uganda with her grandparents
Ankita Chaurasia (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 3, 2020)

Around this time of the year, Juhi Chawla is usually in Kolkata, cheering her Boys in Purple (team Knight Riders) from the stands while anxiously watching the scoreboard. But this IPL cricket season, the actress and franchise co-owner is locked down in her Mumbai home. “Unless the situation improves and travel restrictions around the world are lifted, we can’t expect matches to start,” she reasons.

Juhi’s Austrian family holiday with husband Jay Mehta and children Jahnavi and Arjun turned into an event straight out of a film as the Coronavirus scare spread across Europe. “Austria partially closed off its borders soon after we left. Ditto Switzerland. So, we returned to our London home where my in-laws joined us,” she recounts.

By then, India had started restricting incoming international flights and a lockdown-like situation seemed imminent. “So, we decided to fly back. Apna ghar, apna ghar hota hai aur apna desh, apna desh hota hai,” Juhi says emphatically, asserting that she didn’t want to be anywhere else but home during these trying times. “We approached the High Commission of India and they helped us reach Mumbai safely. All the racing and the dodging made it seem like we were shooting for a thriller.”

Upon her return to the city, the actress faced yet another challenge. “Some of our staff comes from outside and it quickly became apparent that they wouldn’t be able to continue reporting to work. So, we re-organised everything and shut off some of the rooms for better management of the rest. Thankfully, I have people in the kitchen, otherwise it would have been a disaster. We are functioning with skeletal staff and one in-house driver,” the actress informs.

Juhi’s businessman-husband is with her, along with son Arjun, while daughter Jahnavi is in Uganda with her grandparents. “She studies in the US and they have to attend online classes. Being in India would mean staying up all night for lectures. At least the time difference is not so huge there,” she explains.

Arjun, who will appear for his standard 10 exams this year, is continuing with his studies, too, in case the school suddenly decides to hold them. “He’s also watering the plants, now that the gardener can’t come in. There’s also a lot of fiddling around with gadgets,” she says, going on to enquire if the person on the other end of the line is using earphones or speaking directly into the handset. Sounding disappointed when told it’s the latter, Juhi says she’s trying to stay away from mobile phones as much as possible.

Meanwhile, with the family priests unable to come in, Jay and Juhi have started conducting the morning pooja themselves, beginning the day with prayers. “It’s calming; perhaps this is God’s way of bringing us closer together,” muses the actress, who has also started doing riyaaz again. “I was a dedicated student to begin with, but as life got busier, I gave up music. My teacher prodded me to start again and I have started taking online classes.”

She’s tuning out negative news so it doesn’t add to her anxiety, and is reveling in the positives instead. “It’s not so hot in Mumbai anymore. Normally, by this time, you couldn’t do without the air-conditioner. The skies are so clear that I can see the lights all the way to Cuffe Parade from my Malabar Hill apartment,” she exults, adding that she is having methi seeds, soaked overnight, every morning to pamper her tresses. Is it working? “If I come out of this lockdown with thick, lustrous hair, you’d know,” she chuckles.

Juhi Chawla recounts how she had to cut short her trip and return to Mumbai
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; April 1, 2020)

Juhi Chawla had spent weeks chalking out the month-long Austria holiday, knowing little that fate had other plans in store. The actor, who headed to Austria with husband Jai Mehta and kids Jahnavi and Arjun on March 1, had to cut short her vacation and fly back home as the Coronavirus pandemic spread across Europe.

Narrating her ordeal, the actor says, "When we reached Austria, the country was on the verge of closing down [ahead of its partial lockdown on March 16]. So, we could stay back or leave right away. After our Austria trip, we were scheduled to travel to London. So, we advanced that and promptly headed to London where we have a family home."

By mid-March, the situation in the British capital was turning bleaker. Around the same time, back home, the Indian government announced restrictions on incoming international flights. "We were again [left with the same options] — return to India right away or stay back in London. We then went to the High Commission of India; the officials there ensured that we could travel back home safely," recounts Chawla, who landed in the bay on March 20. Under home quarantine since, Chawla has contributed to various non-profit organisations that are helping those affected by the lockdown.

Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 31, 2020)

“I have brought my son back home with me to Mumbai, but my daughter is a little stubborn (laughs). It makes me feel secure she’s staying with her grandparents in Uganda. However, I wish we could all be together now,” says Juhi Chawla, with her signature warmth. Her children, Jhanvi and Arjun, were at their boarding school in the UK at the time of the Coronavirus outbreak but she decided to fly them down.

She confides that a while ago, she was overwhelmed by a sudden rush of nerves. “A few nights ago, I had a panic attack. My mind was racing ahead and I was worrying what if we’re unable to battle this pandemic. I woke up and told myself to stop thinking,” she says. But Chawla is now happy, picking up a skill not many know about. She says, “I was learning to sing but gave up a few months ago as I couldn’t focus. My teacher messaged and I felt this is the best time to resume training since I’m grounded at home. I’m taking lessons online.”

The Ishq (1997) actor adds, “Apart from that, I’ve been reading and watching films. My son and I’ve taken to watering our garden. And my mother-in-law has given us the duty to do the puja in the house.” She believes the lockdown is “grounding” everyone. “Whenever I stay home, I always experience a fear of missing out and so, I want to keep running around. But this time, staying at home feels like a detox. The best thing to do is to look around yourself and feel grateful,” says Chawla.

Emphasising how each person should help those in need, she says, “The simplest thing that we can do right now is show kindness and consideration. There’s a 96-year-old woman living all by herself in Mahim. Her children are abroad and they aren’t able to send her money. Since there’s a lockdown, I can’t send food across to her every other day but I’m trying to help her as much as I can.”

Chawla co-owns Kolkata Knight Riders, part of the Indian Premiere League. Talking about the IPL’s suspension she shares, “The lockdown is till April 14. Then the government will take a call on what to do next. We don’t know what’s going to happen but we do realise safety of people is more important than anything else. We’ve to wait and watch and let things unfold.”

Sangeeta Yadav (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 8, 2019)

With over three decades in Bollywood, actor Juhi Chawla has worked in the best of both worlds — out-and-out commercial Bollywood movies and offbeat films. But what brought a huge transformation to her life and career was marriage and motherhood.

“There was a time when I used to do big-budget films with a huge troupe dancing in the background... some were commercial Bollywood or romance films. Then I got married and had kids and I stopped getting those kind of roles. What was offered to me was 3 Deewarein, Jhankaar Beats (both in 2003), My Brother Nikhil (2005) and many others that were very offbeat and not the typical Bollywood masala movies,” says Juhi.

When the actor started doing small-budget movies, she wasn’t “very comfortable”, but later she says she found the change “very refreshing”.

“Suddenly, I started doing small-budget films. The 30-40 dancers that I used to dance with disappeared. The actors were different, the sets looked more real, the unit would be smaller and you’d get to know everybody you worked with. Sometimes I’d even help them setup too,” says the Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga actor.

She adds how her makeup didn’t take “an hour-and-a-half or more”. She says, “I used to take just 20 minutes to dressup. Even the way they’d require me to act was different from the dialogue-baazi I did in my previous films. It was like a breath of fresh air.”

After becoming a mother to Jhanvi (18) and Arjun (16), the actor made a conscious decision to be very particular about her work. Juhi says, “As my kids were also little, I was doing fewer films in a year. So, there was a slowdown, but the films kept coming.”

During that time, Juhi also started experimenting with Punjabi films, such as Des Ho Yaa Pardes (2004) and Waris Shah (2007). As of now, she is happy “work keeps coming” and that keeps her going.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 16, 2018)

Thirteen is a lucky number for Juhi Chawla. It was on November 13 that she entered the world. This year, she brought in her birthday with family, some under-privileged kids among whom she distributed sweets, and a flood of memories. She recalled the first big bash she’d hosted a year after Mansoor Khan’s directorial debut had turned Aamir Khan and her into the QSQT cuties. By then the former Miss India who’d waltzed into Wonderland without a definite plan, had realised that this was where she wanted to work. She invited her film family to her party at a Juhu five-star and was thrilled when the who’s who of the frat turned up, including Amir, Mansoor and his producer-dad Nasir Hussain.

Aamir’s name came up in many birthday scripts later. A few years later, when Juhi was bringing in her birthday quietly in her new Versova home, he drove up, bearing a gift, a bar of Cadbury chocolate. “That’s it?” Juhi asked and he laughed, “That’s it!”

Another birthday came along when the duo was filming a sequence for Ishq where Aamir chases Juhi into a warehouse. During lunch break, a cake was brought out and the birthday girl, all dressed up and smiling, cut it to a chorus of “Happy Birthday”. Then, with a mischievous glint, Aamir reached out for a chunk of cake and slapped it on Juhi’s perfectly made-up face. For a minute she stood there stupefied, then, as her pranking co-star took to his heels, she flew after him. “He was quick but I chased him all around Film City with Indu ji (director Indra Kumar) cheering me on, urging me not to give up. I finally caught Aamir and got my revenge by plastering his face with cake,” she reveals.

Ishq was a couple of years in the making and by her next birthday, the two buddies were no longer on speaking terms. “We were filming in the same studio but this time when the cake was brought out, Aamir was not around. Uske bina mazaa nahin aa raha tha, so I went looking for him. He was in his vanity van, closeted in a meeting with Amol Palekar. I was scared to disturb them so after a while I went back and cut the cake without him,” she recounts. It would be a few years before the problem was resolved with Juhi taking the initiative and making a call. “That’s when I realised that he too had been wanting to make-up but believing I was mad with him, didn’t approach me. The issue was trivial, and it felt good to be back to being friends,” Juhi smiles.

Another Khan, who along with wife, Gauri, has always been around on her special day, sometimes joining her husband Jay Mehta and the family for a birthday dinner, is Shah Rukh. Any gifts? Juhi points out that they are just a formality that friends can do without. “But Shah Rukh did get me a tiny gold cross from Spain,” she murmurs. Her most precious gift undoubtedly was a handmade card on an A4-size sheet, on which her kids, Jhanvi and Arjun, had listed out all of mamma’s instructions, from “Don’t eat junk” to “No more TV, it’s time to study!”, accompanied by funny doodles and blurbs. “This was when they were younger and more excited about the occasion,” she laughs good-naturedly, adding that she stuck their card on her bathroom mirror where it remained for the next few years till the ink faded. “It’s the first thing I’d see every morning.” Another sparkling memory is associated with Ajay Devgn’s Son of Sardaar which released on November 13, 2012. “It was Diwali, my birthday and I had a film opening on the day. That made it special!” she exults.

She remembers other birthdays on the sets, one which she brought in with Rishi Kapoor and a five-kg cake while shooting a song with P L Raj. “This year too, on my birthday, Chintu ji messaged from the US. We were to start a delightful, heartwarming film in Delhi in October. But then he wasn’t feeling well and had to fly out to the US for treatment. I told him to get well soon and come home so we could start our film.”

Side still: Aamir Lhan in Ishq; Juhi, Rishi in Bol Radha Bol

Dhaval Roy (DNA; November 22, 2017)

First it was the ban on plastic bags less than 50 microns after the 2005 deluge that had actress and entrepreneur Juhi Chawla thrilled. Now, she says that the news has got better with the Maharashtra government reportedly planning to impose a ban on packaged water bottles in Mantralaya, other government offices, hotels, and finally restaurants by March 2018. “Every time you throw plastic away, it sits down in the ocean and goes down into the landfill. It’s sad what we are doing to the environment,” the actress says emphatically, welcoming the news.

GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
On her part, whenever Juhi goes for meetings, events, or stays at a hotel, she asks for boiled, filtered water in jars or stored in glass bottles. “When we were growing up, restaurants and hotels always served from jars or glass bottles and we drank that. Only in the last few years has the trend of plastic bottles started. People have been blinded and uninformed about how harmful they are. Now that it has become an environmental issue, they are being banned and I hope people realise that this will also be better for their own health,” she says.

IT ALL BEGAN AT HOME
Just like charity, the go-green drive for Juhi also began at home, and out went plastic bags and containers from her kitchen, making her abode 95 per cent plastic-free. “My children Arjun and Janhavi were the first ones I experimented on by changing their lunch boxes and water bottles. Of course, they protested at first because it was so uncool but I said, nothing doing,” she smiles. Till three years ago, her husband Jay (Mehta) would stock bottled water either from Himalayan water or water from Mulshi Springs for guests. “I said what nonsense is going on and we needed to stop it. So now, our whole household has clean water from the filter,” Juhi says. “Even when something new comes into the house, we make sure it’s not plastic,” she says.

Other than containers in her kitchen, Juhi has also replaced her toothbrush with a bamboo one, which is 100 per cent biodegradable. “The other thing I’m strict about is thermocol plates and cups that are highly damaging to the environment and completely avoidable. For my birthday on November 13, I had food served to the lesser-privileged people in paper plates without plastic coating and in donas (leaf cups). I prefer those and palm leaf or banana leaf plates,” she says.

GREEN AT WORK, TOO
Juhi is doing her best to keep things eco-frienldy at work, too. This year, for the IPL matches of her team with Shah Rukh Khan, Kolkata Knight Riders, they changed the plastic sticks of flags with thin paper, which will be refined further next year. They will also carry the work with their franchises Cape Town Knight Riders in the T20 Global League in South Africa and Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in the Caribbean League. “Though, we are still struggling with water packets and bottles; one lakh are sold per match,” Juhi points out, “I have constantly been reminding the team to cajole the sponsors for environmentally-friendly in-stadium branding.”

The Gulaab Gang actress adds that she takes it for granted that she has support from her business partner and former co-star Shah Rukh. “Poor fellow doesn’t even know what eco-friendly programmes I have been undertaking,” she giggles, “Because we are somebody, people listen to and comply with what we have to say about keeping things greener. In time, you will hear that Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and SRK’s Red Chilies’ shoots will be more eco-friendly,” she says.

FOR THE FUTURE GENS
Juhi admits that it was because of her children that she got so conscious about the environment, and soon realised that she wanted to do it for every child. “It’s our generation that has made a mess of the planet and our children don’t deserve this. They probably won’t be able to handle the mess we have made,” says the actress who thinks it’s her duty to make people aware about the cause.”

On a lighter note she concludes, “My poor kids hear so much from me when they use plastic that they go, ‘Oh, there goes mom again’ but this work is dedicated them and all the children on the planet.”

The actress is lending her voice to a TV show dedicated to pilgrim landmarks across the country
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 10, 2017)

Juhi Chawla is set to lend her voice to a travelogue on TV that will take viewers to popular religious destinations across the country. It will show rituals being performed, have devotees explain why they are drawn to these pilgrim centres and the mythology associated with the temples. The show is called Sharanam - Safar Vishwas Ka.

Confirming the news, the actress says, “Earlier this year, I was on a vacation with my family in London when my manager called to tell me about this show which is all about faith and the positive energy that brings people to these places. I was fascinated by the concept and told her I wanted to be a part of it. I felt it would be a great learning experience and I would be richer from it.” She laughs, adding, “ I’m even getting paid for it.”

Juhi reveals that there’s a Shiva temple close to her Malabar Hill residence and it’s almost like a ritual for her to go there on her children’s (Jhanvi and Arjun) birthday and other significant occasions. It’s a way of thanking God for the joys and asking for the strength to combat trouble.

“Also, whenever I’m in Kolkata, I make it a point to visit Kalighat and offer my prayers to Ma. I’m usually there during the IPL season and on tenterhooks so I visit the temple morning and evening before and after matches. I’ve also been to Vaishno Devi in Jammu, Puri’s famous Jagannath Temple and the Somnath Mandir in Saurashtra, as also Tirupati, Dwarka and Shirdi on family trips,” she reels off.

Recalling a not so pleasant experience Juhi narrates that during the shoot of a South Indian film, as a newcomer she went to Tirupati with her hairdresser and makeup man. “I stood in the paid queue for three-four hours and when my turn came, the usher rudely pushed me away. I was so angry and swore I’d never go back but I have, twice after making a name in films,” she smiles.

As a child Juhi lived in Cuffe Parade and since both her parents worked, there was no set routine to go to a temple every day or even every week. If they felt like it or when her parents had time, they would visit a mandir near Colaba market. “I had a pet dog, Penny, and once she had to undergo a surgery. The vet told us frankly that he didn’t know if she would make it through. I was heartbroken and went running to the temple but it was shut. I still stood there, prayed and sobbed my heart out. An hour later, I went back to the clinic and was told Penny was fine and could be taken home. The memory has stayed with me,” she shares.

Always honest, the actress admits that she’s not a couch potato and only watches TV occasionally, when her inlaws are around. Sometimes husband, Jay Mehta, switches it on. “If I’m at home, there’s always so much to do. But the kids enjoy watching the sports channels and Jay always tunes into the news while my in-laws watch the music shows and serials. I run away from serials because coming from a film background, I know how storylines are manipulated to please the audience. I prefer reality and talent shows,” she signs off.