Priyanka Chopra was just 17 when she first tasted success at the Miss India pageant, and soon afterwards, when she won Miss World, she was ta the cusp of stardom. To make the most of the opportunities she was getting at the time, her mother, Madhu Chopra, moved with her to Mumbai while her father, Ashok Chopra, stayed back in their hometown Bareilly with her brother Siddharth. As Priyanka’s career took off, things moved quickly for the Chopra family. Amid all this, Siddharth, who was still in his early teens, was “neglected.” In a recent interview, Madhu recalled how Siddharth coped up with all the changes around him and “manned up.” She also spoke about how as parents, they started saving up for their kids’ future right from the time they were born.
In a chat on The Debinna Bonnerjee Show, Madhu said that they started saving for Priyanka’s wedding as soon as she was born. Madhu also said that they also made savings for their son’s higher education. “That’s how we were. From the time our kids were born, we started a recurring deposit every month for Priyanka’s wedding and for Siddharth’s education. When the time came, we used it for Siddharth’s education in Switzerland and we also used it. When Priyanka was getting relocated, it was a big expense, getting a house here, making her secure, buying her clothes, paying for her travel, it was too expensive, even though the two of us were working but this helped,” she said.
She was also asked how Siddharth coped when Priyanka’s career started picking up in Mumbai and Madhu recalled that for a short while, they left him in the US with their extended family as they were yet to establish themselves in Mumbai. “We left our son in America for a while because we were very shaky over here so he stayed with my family in the US. When we got a little more stable, that’s when he got him back. For him also, it was very hard,” she said. Before this, Priyanka too had lived in the US with her aunt. During this time, Priyanka faced racism and bullying in school.
Madhu shared that since she was required to be with Priyanka at all times during the early days of her career, as this was a condition put forth by her husband’s brother, who was also the oldest in the family, Siddharth ended up getting “neglected.” “I was always with Priyanka because that was a condition put by my brother-in-law, that you can’t leave her alone even for a minute, that’s the condition for her to move to Mumbai. I had no choice, I had no practice, no work. I was with her because I saw that as my most important duty, to keep her happy and safe. So Siddharth was neglected amid all this but he manned up,” she said.
Madhu said that all of this was probably good for Siddharth as he “manned up” and figured out his higher education by himself. “He found his college by himself, got his admission, moved to Switzerland, studied. He manned up because of all that. That was the good thing. He was not dependent on either of us,” she said.
In an earlier chat shared on Something Bigger Show’s YouTube channel, Madhu had said that Siddharth was the “collateral damage” to Priyanka’s success as he grew up on his own. “I see him struggling everyday and I feel that, okay god has blessed you, so just count your blessings, one by one and it will surprise you what the lord has done. I count my blessings everyday,” she said.
