Agencies
BOLLYWOOD: Actress Neena Gupta is a pathbreaking woman in a conservative Indian society.
As a young gorgeous actress, she got into a relationship with already married cricketing legend Vivian Richards in the late 1980s.
Famous as a ladies’ man, Richards was leading the West Indies team touring India when Neena met him at a hotel in Mumbai. Sparks flew between them and they were madly in love.
Neena got pregnant, but Richards was already married with two kids. So their love child – Masaba Gupta – was born in 1989. She was 20 at that time.
Neena, who finally married Delhi businessman Vivek Mehra in 2008 and is now all set to release her memoir Sach Kahun Toh even as her acting career is on the upswing, has recently spoken about Vivian Richards and their daughter Masaba.
In an interview, Neena says she loved Vivian Richards and that’s why she had a daughter with him. She says she and Vivian still have immense respect for each other
She says she has never poisoned her daughter against her father.
Neena Gupta says, “I had Masaba because I loved Vivian. And if you love somebody, you can’t hate somebody like that. You may not live or do things together – woh dheere dheere pata chalta hai (you know other things about the person only over a period of time). But you can’t hate. Aisa toh nahi hota ki aaj love hai toh kal suddenly you hate. And how can you put this thing in your daughter’s mind about her father. I don’t want to and don’t feel it. Why should I poison her thoughts? I have respect for him, he respects me and so, she has respect for both of us. It’s a very simple thing.”
Masaba, who has become India’s top celebrity fashion designer with her own House of Masaba label, recently shared a moving excerpt from her mom’s upcoming memoir.
Masaba wrote, “When I was born, my mum had Rs 2000 in her bank account. A timely tax reimbursement would bump that number up to Rs 12,000 and of course I was a C-section baby.”
As for Neena, she is going great guns as an actress. She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for her role as a middle-aged pregnant woman in the 2018 comedy-drama Badhaai Ho.
She was seen in two movies in 2020 and her three movies – 83, Dial 100 and Gwalior – are in the pipeline.
