Neena Gupta reveals her mother ‘tried to end her life’ after her father’s second marriage

Actor Neena Gupta has opened up about her parents’ marriage and how her mother attempted suicide after her father tied the knot for the second time. In her autobiography, Sach Kahun Toh, she also detailed her experience as a child and her father’s absence in the house.

Neena Gupta has said that Sach Kahun Toh is an honest tell-all book about her life, chronicling her professional highs and personal lows. The autobiography touches upon several milestones of her life, from her unconventional pregnancy and single parenthood to a successful comeback in Bollywood.

Zoom TV quoted Neena’s autobiography as saying, “My father was brave enough to marry my mother for love. But he was also a dutiful son who couldn’t refuse when his father forced him to marry another woman from his community.”

She also said that her mother was left ‘shattered’ due to this and wanted to end her life. “This betrayal from my father shattered my mother to the extent that she actually tried (and thankfully failed) to end her life. It took me a while to realize that it wasn’t normal for fathers to leave after dinner every evening. That fathers didn’t come home in the morning for breakfast and a change of clothes before leaving for the office. That fathers didn’t spend the night with some variation of ‘Seema Aunty’ (that’s what we called his other wife; name changed),” the book said.

Neena’s mother was Shakuntala Gupta, a Punjabi girl who tied the knot with a guy from a different caste, as the report. Her father was Roop Narain Gupta, who was torn between his two families, and had two sons from the second marriage.

Earlier this week, during an Instagram video chat with actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, who launched Sach Kahun Toh, Neena said she has been writing the autobiography for 20 years and would often wonder if people were even interested in reading about her.

“I would start and wonder, ‘What is there to write about my life? Why would people be interested in reading it?’ Then the lockdown happened… And I did a lot of thinking about my life and decided to resume writing again. Everything is out of my system now. Things I was hiding for so many years. That’s a big relief. I think, maybe after reading the book, even if one person doesn’t make the mistake which I did, if they feel ‘yeah, we should not do this’, it’ll be worth it,” Neena had said.

Also Read: Jennifer Lopez to star in Netflix’s sci-fi thriller Atlas, will fight a rogue AI soldier

Meanwhile, Neena started work on the upcoming film Goodbye, a week after the Maharashtra government allowed the film and TV industry to restart their production activities with Covid-19 protocols. The film also stars Amitabh Bachchan and Rashmika Mandanna, among others.

If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918

Related Stories

PUBLISHED ON JUN 16, 2021 12:21 PM IST

• Rohit Bose Roy has spoken about his first commercial with Sushmita Sen, which was shot after she was crowned Miss Universe in 1994.

PUBLISHED ON JUN 16, 2021 12:20 PM IST

• Kamaal R Khan, aka KRK, appeared to take credit for Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai’s commercial performance. He was careful to cite reports, and refused to take names.