On Mother’s Day, we had the pleasure of speaking with Neha Dhupia, an actress who is not only known for her beauty and talent but also for her dedication to being a loving mother and daughter. During our conversation, Neha, who is a mother to adorable kids, daughter Mehr Dhupia Bedi and son Guriq Singh Dhupia Bedi, shared some heartwarming anecdotes about motherhood and her relationship with her own mother.
Neha Dhupia talked about how motherhood has changed her and said, “Motherhood changes me in so many ways. I just feel like it helps me make all the right choices, and it helps me understand my time better. I see my heart literally beating outside of me when I see my children. It has made me far more sensitive, and it has made me a good listener, but these are just the touch points of how motherhood has changed me. “Of course there is an entire book and manual I can write on it, but for starters, these would be all.”
When asked about the changing dynamics in the industry around balancing career and motherhood, she replied, “I think it’s improved in many ways. I wondered when I joined the industry in my early 20s if I would become a mom or whether I would still be a working actor. I have been fortunate enough to do a film like A Thursday when I was pregnant for the second time—eight months pregnant—and playing a real-life cop who was pregnant, and it came from a time when I was actually pregnant, and that was incorporated as a beautiful layer in my character, and it’s not just me.”
She continued, “I feel there are multiple actresses and they don’t have to cancel it out. I mean, the question is still asked many times, ‘Would you, can you, if you are at work, who is looking after the kids?’ I feel like those kinds of questions and those kinds of opinions are always going to be on the periphery, but lots of women have led from the front even after becoming moms, and it’s not about taking breaks and sabbaticals any more, and I respect that. I mean, if that is happening out of choice, nothing wrong with that. There are some examples, like Alia Bhatt bouncing back to work, Kareena Kapoor Khan working, and many more. I mean, I feel like I’ve worked through my pregnancies, and being a mother or pregnant is not our weakness but our strength, and we can work around it all and nothing will change.”
Talking about how her relationship with her mother has influenced her relationship with her children, she stated, “I feel like if I can be half the mother to my daughter that the mother that I have had my entire life who raised me and continues to do so, I think I’ll be able to do well. I turned out okay—our relationship is—I always listen and hear her opinions on multiple things in life, whether they were professional choices or personal choices, but now this is, you know, mom to mom—and there is no way that I am not going to take her feedback, her opinion, or listen to her 100 percent.”
She further celebrated all the moms in the industry and said, “I would imagine everyone, it’s never a differentiator, so yeah, Kareena, Alia, Anushka, Shilpa, I mean everyone who is a mom who is in this industry, who decided to work, not work—all fabulous—all made choices in the circumstances that they are in, and I am a fan. I mean, everybody brings something at all times.”
On May 18, 2018, Neha Dhupia married actor Angad Bedi. She gave birth to a child named Mehr Dhupia Bedi on November 18, 2018. In an Instagram post on July 19, 2021, she and Angad announced that they were expecting their second child. On October 3, 2021, she welcomed her second child, Guriq Singh Dhupia Bedi.
See Also: Neha Dhupia on #MomGuilt, postpartum depression and what every woman needs to hear