Actor-dancer Neelima Azeem has to be one of the proudest mothers in Bollywood, considering both her sons, Shahid Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter, are doing so well with their careers. The actor has often found herself at the centre of media gossip, and so have her children. But in a recent interview, Azeem made it clear that she doesn’t want to add to her children’s troubles by talking about their personal life in front of the media. She was asked questions about Shahid’s dating past and Ishaan’s current romantic expeditions; both questions were dodged gracefully by the actor.
While talking to Vickey Lalwani on his podcast, Neelima was asked about Shahid and Ishaan’s formative years as adults and at what age they moved out to live their own lives. She answered, “He (Shahid) started living by himself when he was 23. Ishaan also moved out around the same age. I encouraged it because I think they only grew up with their mother, and they ‘manned up’ on their own. They found their paths, and they found their artistic truths. They became their own people, and it’s a good thing because they will make good men for their women.”
When asked about Shahid Kapoor’s dating past, namely his relationship with actors Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, Neelima was quick to brush it aside. “I don’t talk about that at all. It is his private life to reveal, and it is his life to share or not share. I respect him so much, and he is a grown-up man. I wouldn’t talk about his past. He is a father and a husband, and it’s his own life. Everybody has a past, and everybody has relationships. “The go-to person was me, and he told me, but I wouldn’t share it with anyone else,” said Neelima.
She continued to reveal nothing about her sons and said that Ishaan too tells her everything, and she is not about to air his dirty laundry in front of the media. She was asked whether there was any truth to the dating rumours surrounding Ishaan and Ananya Panday, and she replied, “That I am not getting into. We share our lives completely. So everything about our lives, we are just an open book with each other. Whether it is his brother and bhabi or whether it is me, he is very close.
Neelima also said, “He (Ishaan) shares everything with me. But I respect them, and they are grownups. They have very strong personalities; I am much cooler, and I can talk about myself, but they are much more private about their lives.”
The actor lived up to her claims about being open about her life in the same interview, when she talked about her separation from Pankaj Kapoor and the way it affected Shahid. She said, “There was a very massive distance since he was in Mumbai and I was in Delhi. I was still very much the girl who was in Delhi with my parents because that’s how it was. Maybe it was not a good idea at that point in time for him to have taken off to Mumbai without me and later without Shahid.”
