Work Therapy Helped Neetu Navigate Bereavement

Neetu Singh turned to ‘work therapy’ to get over her husband Rishi Kapoor’s death. The veteran actress revealed that it was Karan Johar who helped her find her way through grief. Recalling her struggle with bereavement, Neetu said, “Chintu (Rishi Kapoor) couldn’t do without me for even a minute. When I went for weekly movies with friends he would call me constantly. That’s why I stopped acting in movies. He never stopped me; but even if I were away shooting, he wouldn’t be able to take it. He couldn’t be in the house without me. Since Rishi and I grew up together and sort of merged into marriage, I didn’t mind his dependence on me. When he passed away, I couldn’t sleep for a month or two, and I got into drinking. And then I could not sleep without drinking.”

Thinking back to those days, she said, “I needed to get out. I spoke to Karan, and he asked me to get back to work.”

Neetu Singh, who is back on screen with Dadi Ki Shaadi, is a dadi (grandmother) in real life, but doesn’t look it.

Asked for her formula of eternal youth, she responded, “Healthy eating, sleeping and thinking.” Neetu’s daughter Riddhima makes her film debut as Neetu’s on-screen daughter in Dadi Ki Shaadi. Says Neetu, “Both my daughter and I reacted with disbelief and laughter when she first got the offer. Then we thought about it, and we both felt she should do it…why not?”