‘You don’t compete with your mom’

New Delhi: Janhvi Kapoor had asked her mother superstar Sridevi not to visit her on the set of her debut film ‘Dhadak’, a decision she described as ‘one of the biggest regrets’ of her life.

Janhvi, daughter of Sridevi and producer Boney Kapoor, made her foray into acting with 2018’s ‘Dhadak’. The film was released months after Sridevi died in Dubai at the age of 54.

Hailed as one of the first female superstars of the Indian film industry, Sridevi worked across languages in films such as ‘Moondru Mudichu’, ‘Pokkiri Raja’, ‘Sadma’, ‘Chaalbaaz’, ‘Lamhe’, ‘Chandni’ and ‘English Vinglish’.

Janhvi said she consciously wanted to be away from her mother as she had ‘an unfair advantage’. “People were already saying, ‘You got your first film because you are Sridevi’s daughter’. I decided I wouldn’t take any help from her. I thought I had an unfair advantage. It would be more unfair if I took her advice. So, I told her, ‘Please don’t come on set. I have to work on my own’. Sometimes, I feel it was stupid of me. I took all that nonsense a bit too seriously. I regret it. I know she was dying to come on set and help me as a mother. I just didn’t let her. One of the biggest regrets... I wish I had just said, ‘Mumma, please come. I have a shoot. I need you,” the 26-year-old said during a session on the second day of ‘Agenda AajTak 2023’ here.

Janhvi, known for her work in diverse films such as ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl’, ‘Good Luck Jerry’ and ‘Mili’, said initially she used to feel pressured about being compared with her mother.

“I would get nervous and overworked about all this baggage. But then I realised I was being compared to mumma, Sridevi Kapoor, so that was the standard. It only started motivating me. Mumma told me that my performance in my first film will be compared with her last film,” the Bollwood actor shared.