Neena Gupta on having daughter Masaba Gupta without marrying: ‘Bhugta, saha aur maza bhi kia’

Neena Gupta has said she never planned the decisions that she took in her life and they were God’s master plan for her. She was talking about having a child wh and raising her single-handedly in the Indian society in the 80s and 90s. (Also read: Neena Gupta says Anupam Kher takes more time than her to get dressed)

Neena had daughter Masaba from her relationship with former West Indies player Vivian Richards, who was married to someone else. Neena and Vivian have lived separately throughout their lives. She is widely hailed as brave and strong for being the first single mom in the Hindi film industry.

Talking to Navbharat Times in an interview, Neena said, “I did not plan that I will fall in love with a person with whom I cannot live and have a child with him as well. I never planned that I should do something brave. I just faced the situations God gave me.”

She added, “I never gave up, and stood by my decisions. I never took any financial or emotional help for it. I suffered, endured and also enjoyed all of that. What else could I do? I could either keep crying, or marry someone pleading ‘I want a child’. I could have wasted my life crying. It wasn’t my plan to show some act of bravery but I simply accepted and went ahead with whatever God gave me.”

Neena’s last outing was Vikas Bahl’s Goodbye with Amitabh Bachchan and Rakul Preet Singh and she is now gearing up for the release of Sooraj Barjatya’s directorial Uunchai. The upcoming film also stars Amitabh, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Danny Denzongpa and Parineeti Chopra in the lead roles. Uunchai set for a theatrical release on November 11.

Apart from Uunchai, Neena also has Ajayan Venugopalan’s Shiv Shastri Balboa that also features alongside Anupam Kher and Jugal Hansraj. Ajayan has previously written and directed the acclaimed Malayalam television sitcom Akkara Kazhchakal.