Having recovered from COVID, Genelia Deshmukh on battling loneliness with family calls, yoga during the quarantine
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; September 1, 2020)

When we get on a call with Genelia Deshmukh on Monday evening, the actor reveals she spent the better part of the day helping sons Riaan and Rahyl with their online classes. The actor couldn't be happier as she had missed these daily activities with her boys. On Sunday, she announced on social media that she had recovered from Coronavirus following a 21-day quarantine.

The actor reveals that the family, including husband Riteish Deshmukh, underwent tests at Lilavati Hospital in Bandra, in the second week of August. "We were in close contact with someone who had tested positive, so we did the tests as a safety measure. I was sure I hadn't contracted the virus as I didn't show any symptoms. So, it was surprising when I was the only one in the family to test positive," recounts Genelia.

The actor immediately moved out of their Worli residence to practise the 14-day quarantine in their suburban apartment. "Though I remained asymptomatic, I tested positive again after 14 days. So, I was recommended another week of quarantine."

Used to the hustle and bustle that comes with raising two kids, Genelia Deshmukh says the silence was initially unsettling. "My doctor had warned me that those quarantining feel bouts of loneliness. It was tough to be locked away from Riteish and the kids. Thankfully, Riteish, my mother and mother-in-law, Riaan, Rahyl and my friends would take turns calling me. They made sure I didn't feel lonely." She utilised the time to practise yoga and meditation, and ate clean. "I stuck to plant-based food and smoothies during this period."

Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; October 9, 2017)

Riteish Deshmukh is an artist. He sculpts eco-Ganpatis every year and now, he’s done something special for his sons Riaan and Rahyl.

The actor has hand-painted their favourite characters on the window panes of his apartment in New York. Riteish planned a surprise for his kids. He tells us, “My kids inspired me to paint. Nothing else has given me more happiness than to paint for them. They are obsessed with The Lion King and The Jungle Book.”

Riteish’s paintings were made on demand, because his kids love these characters. He says, “It started with Mufasa, Scar, and Simba. I have just finished Bagheera. Sher Khan is next.” No wonder, Riteish is counted among the most doting dads of Bollywood. He further adds, “Genelia encouraged me to take this up. She got me my paints and brushes.”

Ask about his kids’ reaction to the paintings and the funny man jokes, “They were thrilled to see the artwork. They think I’m Picasso, who is at their service.”

Genelia Deshmukh talks about being a mother on a chat show
DNA (October 10, 2016)

Genelia Deshmukh recently appeared on a special edition of the The Tara Sharma Show, post her husband Riteish Deshmukh’s appearance on the show. She discussed motherhood, a possible return to work (in fact, she says she never left!) and how one can do the right thing by just being happy. Excerpts...

Doing the right thing
When asked about pregnancy anxiety, GD maintained that asking oneself, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ is a nice question to ask yourself once in a while. “It’s just not nice to lose confidence yourself. What I have realised is my child can only be happy if I am a happy mum. Everyone tries to help out, but I need to filter out the zillion opinions and do what works for you and you will go wrong, but you will correct yourself.”

All in a day’s work
When asked to comment on the statistic — that India has the highest percentage of moms wanting to return to work as mompreneurs — and the possibility of returning to work, she said, “I don’t think I ever left work. Motherhood is a lot of work. It doesn’t have to be acting alone, I have a production house, I have just produced a song, I am on my way to producing two films — I think we all work, but the nature of that work is different.”

Multi-tasking moms
She added, “I’d be grateful to do a film today. Moreover, we can now take our children everywhere. I was shooting on Sunday, both my children were there, and every time I would need to feed, I would do that. And I think women in general can multi-task so well, you never really have a problem.”

And support from her husband always goes a long way. She added, “On a day where you need to do a little more work. I’m grateful that my husband understands that it’s our child together and he is there. Riteish wakes up early though he has work for the rest of the day, but he also understands that I wake up in the middle of the night as well and I think once you have that kind of thing going you can do anything at any point of time.”

Just be content
Genelia summed it up by saying that it’s just about being content at the end of the day. “Though this entire process looks complex, it’s really simple, it’s just up to you to make it that simple. I feel parenting is a learning process every single day and it’s just the most beautiful thing to learn from your children. Little things like when I see Riaan struggling to say a word, I have forgotten all of this and I think that’s what’s important.”

Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh are expecting their second child. And they’re prepared this time around...Riteish calls his wife Genelia an efficient mother and himself a complacent father
Upala KBR (DNA; February 26, 2016)


Genelia has observed changes in her husband’s sleep patterns. “He has to see his son before he goes to sleep. And if he can’t manage that, he will wake up early in the morning, however tired he is, to meet Riaan, who is an early riser. I never knew Riteish could do that as he can sleep forever,” she laughs.

Riteish says his wife has always been a responsible person, but he feels the effort she puts in as a mother, is amazing. “I know all the tough choices she made, so I knew that she would be a responsible wife, too. Till you become a parent, you can’t fathom the change that happens in you. So for me to look at her as a mother was a real thing — she doesn’t consider it an effort — but I know this... the timing, the right kind of food, the internet research she does, she talks to people and such. She listens to everyone, but makes her own choices.”

He adds, “It’s amazing because she’s so efficient as a mother and I’m complacent as a father. For me, it’s okay... I don’t need to be there because Genelia is there, taking care of everything —from giving Riaan the best food to the correct medication. My son is being taken care of, but I will be bubble-wrapping the entire house! Sometimes I feel I just want to wrap my son in a bubble to protect him against the whole world…”

Genelia laughs, “Riteish has bubble-wrapped every corner of the house and protected Riaan from every sharp edge, so he doesn’t get hurt. You can see in our home, the fact is that Riteish loves architecture and yet everything is bubble-wrapped and I am like when will he learn? But then, it’s a good thing because mentally, you are so much at peace that he’s protected. And this way Riaan can roam around freely, too.

Riteish says, “See a child will fall and he will learn but we are just making the edges softer.”

Well, that’s a parent’s job after all, no?

Diaper duty, daddy advice, parenting tools, being there for his wife post-motherhood et al, Riteish Deshmukh dishes on how he dealt with becoming a father for the first time....
Sarita A Tanwar (DNA; June 22, 2015)


Tell me the story behind Riaan’s name...
It’s strange how this name came to me. We were looking at names for boys and girls, trying to figure it out. I was slightly lazy about this. Genelia was like “You’re not giving it any thought.” Around this time, I was shooting for Bangistan, in Poland and we’d been obviously going through names, trying to figure out if we should go for something cool, young or traditional. Also, you want to get it right because you don’t want your child to grow up and tell you, “What an uncool name you gave me”. Genelia and I used to go for a walk every evening to a park outside our hotel. On one such evening, I asked her, “How is the name Riaan?” She said, “It sounds cool.” She asked me what it meant. I said I didn’t know. She asked me where I heard it. I said nowhere, it just came to me. I went online later to figure out what the name meant. One of the meanings is ‘little king’ or ‘ruler’. I also found out that it’s an old Sanskrit name, and a name in various languages.

Did you pick the name on a particular alphabet according to the horoscope?
Nothing like that. Our options were wide open. It wasn’t about, “Let’s start from R because our names start from R or a G or whatever. It just happened that way. We both liked this name and we shortlisted it. Then, as the time came slightly closer, we realised we hadn’t thought about enough names. Then whatever names we thought of, we put down and made a big list. Eventually after his birth, we had to do a barsa. In Maharashtra, a barsa is baaravi (the 12th day). I didn’t do it on the 12th day, we wanted to do it sooner. And we both felt this is it. We didn’t tell anyone in the family. I told my cousin, who had to whisper the name in the baby’s ear, as per the tradition and that’s the first time Genelia announced the name to everyone in the family.

Do you find that since his birth, most of your conversations are all about Riaan?
Ya, you know when Farah (Khan) had kids, she used to constantly show us their pictures of her mobile of her kids. Now my mobile phone is full of Riaan’s pictures, so I understand that. And yes, I think the conversations are all about the child. Everything that relates to the child in terms of from food to sleep patterns. I feel with Genelia, I must have finished discussing how he is going to get married also.

Did you get any advice from friends like Abhishek Bachchan, who are already have children?
No. Also, my brothers both have kids… And more than giving advice…. For example, Abhishek told me about this thing which I totally understand now. He said, ‘The first three years, the baby is going to be all about the mother, and you will just have to deal with it.’ Your child will be in your arms, but when he sees the mother, he will just extend his arms and want to go to her. I have seen so many of my outdoor shootings with children and I have seen my friends, and co-actors up-close with their children. I have seen Akshay with Aarav right from Heyy Babyy to both the Housefulls. I have seen Sajid Nadiadwala with his kids. Ajay with Nysa, Abhishek with Aaradhya. It’s wonderful and while you see that, everyone deals with their babies according to their personality and whatever suits their personality, I would rather choose, this is what I would like to be, this is what I can do, and this is something I can’t do. Akshay can climb a tree, I don’t think I’ll be able to do it, but I’ll try and find a small plant, and show my son. I think within our own limitations, we will try and do our best. Like Genelia said a wonderful line that she read somewhere: ‘Every mother who is doing her best for her child thinks she is still not up there.’ She probably is doing it all wrong, something like that…

Your family is full of boys. Did you want a daughter more than a son?
Yes. We are three brothers and even they have boys, so we thought if this a girl, it will be nice. I have a cousin who is like my real sister, that’s how we were brought up. So yes, we wanted (a girl) but no complaints. A child is a child, boy or girl.

Did you get time to be a full-time dad?
Yes. In fact, Genelia, the first 12 days she was home, after the barsa, she went to her mum’s place. She was there for 20-25 days. I used to visit them everyday and it was lovely spending time... Thankfully, soon after he was born, a film of mine got pushed so I had three months off. So from November, I was probably shooting a song for Bangistan, a couple of shoots for Bank Chor, but a majority of them were later, from the time he is born till now — I started shooting Great Grand Masti — I was relatively free so I got to spend a lot of time with him.

So for now, he is clearly a mama’s boy.
Yes. I think he is too young to make that choice right now. He is six months old… It’s just wonderful to see him wake up, as the first thing that he does is smile. That’s lovely.

How adept are you at changing nappies?
I’m great, but Genelia is fantastic. I remember trying to see her do it and learn. I think giving birth changes a woman in terms of the capacity and capability also. I think it’s just the way. And you want to be there for her and do your bit. So yes, changing a nappie, I learnt from her. I learnt how to wipe the bum…. I remember the first time I took cotton, dipped it in water, wiped his bum and put the same cotton in clean water. And she screamed, “It doesn’t go there.”

Travelling with a baby is really tough. You have already taken him on two foreign trips. Was it a nightmare?
Not at all. The first time he cried a bit, but the other two flights, he was fine. The first time, I remember we went to Goa and he was four-and-a-half months old. On the plane, when a baby starts crying, you are like ‘What do I tell people... please understand?’ I understand people who are probably single and married not understanding, but after having a child, I can only feel compassion towards parents who travel with babies on flights because it’s not how much trouble it is for anyone, but the baby once it’s crying. I remember the first time Genelia and I were sitting with the baby and the maid was behind with the milk bottle, Later, I sent the maid ahead and I sat behind.

What’s the one parenting tool you have learned from your father that you want to use with Riaan?
To give him space and to teach him to respect. I think that’s the core of any person. If you learn to respect, everything else will follow because that is the basic root of how you develop as a human being, as a person. You have to understand the value of respect. You can’t expect to be respected without respecting someone. So, I hope that I am able to instill that core value.

Do you see Genelia getting back to work or taking a long sabbatical like Ash?
I hope she does whatever makes her happy, more than anything else. It was her choice to take a break and spend that time together as a family and the child. But I am sure she would love to work. She is part of whatever I do as a production house. Creatively, in front of the camera I am sure, whenever she thinks she is ready and she wants to do it, that’s her decision. I would love to see her on screen.