Neena Gupta has been a role model for many of us, and inspired us to make tough choices in life. What we don’t know is how her father helped her through the tough times to raise Masaba to be the best daughter.
We admire how Neena Gupta embraced being a single mother and had a beautiful daughter out of wedlock. It is quite inspiring how 30 years back, she gathered the courage to break all the social norms.
But it is not known to many that in her journey to raise a daughter, she had her father who was her source of courage.
Recently, when Neena was invited to the singing reality show, Indian Idol 11, she shared how her father stood like a pillar of strength and helped her raise her daughter as a single mother. She said,
“My father played a very important role in raising my daughter, he especially shifted to Mumbai to help me. I cannot express how thankful I am to him. He was my backbone during the most crucial time of my life.”
Happy fathers day my dad who stood by me like a rock in my most difficult times love you miss you pic.twitter.com/j7JFD9HE4t
— Neena ‘Zyada’ Gupta (@Neenagupta001) June 17, 2018
But, this wasn’t the first time Neena has spoken about her father’s unconditional support. In her earlier interview with TOI, Neena Gupta recalled how her father became the man of the house when she was struggling to raise her daughter:
“My friends told me don’t do this, but I was young and had the nasha, so did it. I feel it was very tough for me and I did my best. But I had to do bad movies, as I needed the money to bring her up.
I lost my mother to cancer, so once Masaba was born, my father moved from Old Delhi to live with me in Mumbai. He became the man of the house till he died five years back. He also was my anchor, even though initially, he was dead against my decision to go ahead with my pregnancy.
Even though he was very orthodox, once he knew that I had decided, he stood by me like a rock. Masaba was jealous of him as he loved me more than her. It’s so strange that God has had his way of looking after me.
I used to always think that God will give me a man when my father dies and that is what happened. As soon as I got married to my present husband Vivek, my father died.”
At IFORHER, we are not only in awe of Neena Gupta but also her inspiring father.
In a society, where parents are too scared of ‘log kya kahengey‘, how Neena Gupta’s father became her pillar of strength is quite inspiring. It was his unconditional support that helped Neena enjoy her tough motherhood journey and become a role model that she is today.