Divya Kaushik and Abhimanyu Mathur (BOMBAY TIMES; August 11, 2019)

BEST POPULAR FILM PROVIDING WHOLESOME ENTERTAINMENT
Badhaai Ho

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Surekha Sikri for Badhaai Ho

Junglee Pictures’ Badhaai Ho has won multiple accolades at the 66th National Film Awards. Not only did the film win the National Award for the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, but Surekha Sikri, who played the character of Ayushmann’s grandmother, also won the Best Supporting Actress award.

Badhaai Ho was a comical take on the sensitive subject of parental pregnancy and earned over `200 crore at the box office, garnering popular appreciation as well as critical acclaim. Elated by the recognition that the film has received, producer of the film and Times Group MD Vineet Jain, says, “Junglee Pictures has always believed in telling impactful stories in the most engaging manner. This recognition, in the form of a National Award, is truly gratifying. I am proud of the team for putting together such a delightful yet meaningful film.”

DISTINCTION BETWEEN OFFBEAT AND COMMERCIAL DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE: AMIT SHARMA
The film’s director Amit Sharma sees the win as a validation of the entire team’s hard work. “It is a validation of what I set out to do — make a family film on a subject that some would consider offbeat. Five years ago, people would have called it an offbeat film, but this award proves that films are films. The distinction between offbeat and commercial does not exist anymore,” he says.

He also says the news came as a pleasant surprise. “Expectation waise toh har cheez se hoti hai, but honestly, I hadn’t expected this. God has been really kind and I’m happy that people have loved the film. The critics and the jury have loved it, too. It’s really overwhelming. The business a film does is important, but at the same time, the awards are important, too. When I first heard the news, I couldn’t control my emotions and was completely silent for the first two to three minutes. It means a lot. It is a very big recognition. The news hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

He adds, “I’m feeling a sense of happy pressure right now. I’m on the verge of starting my next film with Ajay Devgn, a biopic on Syed Abdul Rahim, in a few days from now. All I can say is that I will never lose sight of my story and script ever. Experiences like Badhaai Ho teach you to believe in your thoughts and ideas wholeheartedly. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t desire a National Award. I was talking to Surekha Sikri ji after her name was announced as I was happy for her. She told me, ‘Beta, tujhe bhi milega. Yakeen rakh khud par.’ And in minutes, I got a call saying that the film had won the award for the Best Popular Film that provides wholesome entertainment,” he says.

Amit continues, “I thank Mr Vineet Jain for collaborating with us. We are creative people and we want each one of our works to succeed, find commercial and critical acceptance. The response of the audience was phenomenal, which also underlines the fact that a film is not big or small anymore; it’s about how good it is. I knew I was running a risk to keep the film’s focus on the senior set of actors and not the young guns, but that was the only way to stay true to the story. The audience has changed and the credit for our win must also go to them.”

The director also praises his cast — Ayushmann Khurrana, Neena Gupta, Sanya Malhotra and Gajraj Rao — for their role in making the film so memorable. But he reserves the most praise for Surekha Sikri, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for her portrayal of the grandmother in the film. “I’m so happy for her. It is a well-deserved honour for her,” says an elated Amit.


MUJHE BAHUT MAZAA AAYA ISS FILM MEIN KAAM KARKE: SUREKHA SIKRI
Surekha Sikri, who won her third National Award for the much-loved portrayal of the grandmother in the film, was overjoyed at the recognition. She says, “Badhaai Ho is a special film and everyone who worked to make the film a huge success deserves to be congratulated today. It was a well-written film with characters that every family in India can relate to. Mujhe bahut mazaa aaya iss film mein kaam karke and the best part is that the audience appreciated the way it was written.”

“I am thankful to the film’s team, especially director Amit Sharma, for giving me a chance to be a part of such a special film. I am really happy and overwhelmed that people think I am worthy and deserving of this honour,” she adds.

Ayushmann Khurrana, the film’s lead star, is all praise for the director and his creative team. The actor says, “With Badhaai Ho, I took up a taboo topic because I believed that people would be okay to see this kind of cinema. I’m glad that a film like Badhaai Ho won big and I congratulate my director Amit Sharma for his breakthrough script that became a talking point in every household.”

BADHAAI HO HAS ALL THE NAVRASAS: NEENA GUPTA
The cast of the film says that Badhaai Ho has proved to be one of those rare movies in today’s times that earn love and praise from all sections of the audience. “I think Badhaai Ho totally deserves this honour. I have not heard even one person criticise the film, which is very rare,” says Neena Gupta, who played the character of Priyamvada, the film’s female lead.

The actress says the best part of Badhaai Ho was that it touched the hearts of the audiences with a simple and realistic story. “Badhaai Ho has all the navrasas. Natya Shastra says ki natak hamesha sukhant hone chahiye. So, Badhaai Ho was the combination of all the navrasas and had a happy ending. It was the simplicity of the film that won the audiences’ hearts,” she says.

Neena further says she is especially happy for Surekha Sikri. “Woh hamari guru rahi hain. We used to learn from her and we have always looked up to her,” she adds.

STORY AGAR ACCHI HAI TOH WOH DOOR TAK JAATI HAI: GAJRAJ RAO
Gajraj Rao, who played Neena Gupta’s husband in the film, adds, “Story agar acchi hai toh woh door tak jaati hai. It has been 10 months since the film released, but even today, its warmth hasn’t diminished. Everywhere I travel, people treat me with reverence and warmth because I was a part of this film. I am so thankful to the jury for recognising it.”

Before the film had released last year, Ayushmann Khurrana had told us, “Badhaai Ho will be a case study for sure. I mean, it’s talking about a social taboo like middle-age pregnancy. If it achieves that mark of big commercial success and critical acclaim, I think it’s a huge victory.”

Now, with its National Awards success, the film seems to have achieved that victory.

Surekha Sikri, who plays a grandmother who treats her middle-aged son and daughter-in-law like errant teenagers when they get pregnant in Badhaai Ho, tells us about the power dynamics that can exist even in nuclear families
Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; October 18, 2018)

As an artiste who has travelled across mediums and has won two National Awards for her performances in Tamas and Mammo, Surekha Sikri draws immense energy from the characters she plays on screen. Best remembered for playing Dadisa in Balika Vadhu, the actress will now be seen playing a grandmother and an inspiring mother-in-law in Junglee Pictures’ Badhaai Ho. She talks to us about the power-play between saas and bahu, the social stigma attached to bearing children at an age like 50, and why older couples don’t even talk about sex. Excerpts:

Badhaai Ho is about a couple having a baby when their children are old enough to have kids of their own. What was your reaction to the script? We heard that you were the first choice for the part...
I really liked what I heard. It was well-written and the language was flowing well. I agreed to the project immediately because it was so endearing. I found the character really appealing. I liked the way my character responds to situations and the way her feelings for her daughter-in-law change. There was a certain graph to the character which was interesting.

Many people refuse to seek a mother in their mothers-in-law. What do you think stops people from doing that?
There is a human element involved here. My character in the film recounts that it was her bahu and not her own children who looked after in sickness. She goes through a dual feeling – on one hand, she’s mad at her and on the other hand, she appreciates the daughter-in-law for looking after her. My character doesn’t tell her bahu about it almost till the end of the film. She just mentions it in passing.

Why is it so difficult for women bound in the saas-bahu relationship to appreciate each other in a household?
In case of the film, that’s my character. In real life, I think there are women who appreciate their bahus a lot, but everything depends on the personalities of the two women. Generally, the daughter-in-law is seen as someone who has taken over that space of affection and authority in the son’s life, which irritates mothers a lot. That is what makes them rivals. A gentleman had once told me that mother-in-law ko tab bura lagta hai jab ladke ki biwi uski maa ban jaati hai. It’s a deep feeling. The son finds a mother in his wife because while nurturing their children, she also nurtures him. The mother-in-law feels that she’s no longer needed. The thing is, as a society, we are dependent on each other, even if it’s a nuclear family. In the west, people move out of their homes at a young age and there are no expectations. It’s a different story here. The tussle between the women in a man’s life goes on. The idea of giving up authority to the bahu rankles the mother-in-law because women are not educated enough to stand up on their own feet and find something meaningful to do. That thought is slowly changing with more women getting educated.

Badhaai Ho also addresses an important issue – older couples having babies who are mocked at by their family and society. Why does that happen?
You know, it’s not their age, but the social standing of what they’ve done that gets under the scanner. Again, western countries are a lot more open to these things. Over generations, a perception has been built around elderly couples in Indian families. After a certain age, if they’re found indulging in sexual behaviour, and worse, having a pregnancy, it shocks people. This happens largely in middle-class India. I read in TOI about a couple from Bihar. The woman was 39 and the man a little older than her. At that age, they’d had grand kids and the woman got pregnant. The couple committed suicide because of the stigma that followed. They couldn’t bear the trauma of ‘log kya kahenge’. So these things happen for real. Even in Badhaai Ho, Gajraj Rao and Neena Gupta’s characters don’t plan the baby; it happens by chance. You will see that they are embarrassed about it initially, but they come to terms with it.

If we roll back in time, Indian joint families had women across age brackets becoming mothers around the same time. Saas-bahu, maabeti ikhatta maa banti thi, and that was not a stigma back then. What do you think has made having babies at 50 an embarrassment?
Those days, women got married at 12, and by 35, they had grandchildren, and yet, they hadn’t gone past their prime. So they could have babies. Gradually, middle class India was formed which is less forgiving about these things. But agar ho gaya toh ho gaya na? Kya hua ussme? I have seen families around me where people have aunts and uncles who are way younger than them. I think people will open up to the idea again, slowly. A few years ago, a situation like the one in Badhaai Ho would have shocked people way more. Gradually, youngsters are becoming cooler about these things. They’re handling relationships more maturely and they seem to understand that even their parents have a private life. In the meantime, couples need to accept the fact that whatever their age, they can indulge in sex, and it’s normal. They shouldn’t brush it under the carpet. They need to be more open about this. Most couples, after a certain age, don’t even talk about sex, which they shouldn’t do.

Junglee Pictures presents Badhaai Ho in association with Chrome Pictures. Produced by Vineet Jain, Aleya Sen, Hemant Bhandari and Amit Ravindernath Sharma, the film is co-produced by Priti Shahani.

Badhaai Ho releases today.

Surekha Sikri, who plays mother-in-law to Neena Gupta in the film, hopes it will open up avenues for actors her age
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 17, 2018)

Surekha Sikri, Kalyani Devi aka Dadisa of the long running telly soap Balika Vadhu, is returning to mainstream cinema with Junglee Pictures’ Badhaai Ho. Directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, the slice-of-life comedy revolves around a Delhi boy, Ayushmann Khurrana, who suddenly discovers that his mother, played by Neena Gupta, is pregnant again and he’s going to have a second sibling. The veteran actress plays Neena’s mother-in-law and says she was instantly drawn to this “interesting and sweet character”.

“It’s a great time to be in films as so many good scripts are being written,” says the two-time National Award-winning actress, adding that she kept telling Neena and Gajraj Rao, who plays her son, that they are the second lead, after Ayushmann and Sanya Malhotra.

She adds that while she hasn’t faced a similar situation in her immediate family, she has uncles and aunts who are younger than her. “It’s quite common in smaller towns, but in cities, people worry ki log kya kahenge, more so when your older son is of marriageable age, maybe even has a child of his own. This awkwardness is the fun part of the story,” Surekha chuckles.

She informs that she had read in the papers that a couple in Bihar committed suicide after they learnt that the woman was pregnant again. “Though she was only 39, she had grown-up children with kids of their own and the shame was too much to bear. I was shocked to read this because there’s nothing wrong in romancing your wife, no matter what your age,” she asserts.

The actress was last seen on the big screen in Amole Gupte’s kiddie adventure, Sniff, last year, a film that not many saw. Why don’t we see her more often in films? “I need good scripts. This one came out of the blue. Badhaai Ho is my comeback film in the real sense. I did a couple of movies years ago, then, got busy with TV. I hope this will open up more avenues for actors of my age,” she says optimistically.

And what are the chances of Balika Vadhu returning? “Nothing is impossible. It was an iconic show, and everybody put their best in it, making sure we didn’t compromise on the quality. I wouldn’t mind if it came back,” she signs off.