Sridevi and Boney Kapoor’s marriage in 1996 was controversial, as he left his first wife, Mona Shourie, to be with her. He had two children with Mona, Arjun Kapoor and Anshula Kapoor, and went on to have two daughters with Sridevi, actors Janhvi Kapoor and Khushi Kapoor. Sridevi and Boney Kapoor’s association dated back several years, when he invited her to stay with him at his family home. In an interview, journalist and writer Hanif Zaveri recalled their controversial story, and its fallout.
In an interview with Meri Saheli, he said, “People assume that their romance began when they were making Mr India. That’s not true. Sridevi used to come to Mumbai from Chennai; she didn’t have a house in Mumbai, so she stayed at Sea Rock Hotel. One day, somebody misbehaved with her in the lift, and she vowed never to stay at that hotel again. Then, she started staying at a hotel in Juhu.” He said that Sridevi’s mother needed surgery on her leg, and Boney Kapoor offered to arrange for treatment in the US.
Zaveri said that it was during this time that Boney Kapoor invited Sridevi to stay with him at his house. “Sridevi shifted to the Kapoor family home. Theirs was a joint family, and everybody was staying under the same roof. Mona Kapoor, Boney Kapoor’s first wife, used to take great care of Sridevi. She was a guest, after all. But such is love.” Boney Kapoor recently confirmed this aspect of his love story with Sridevi, but said that he invited her to move in with him and his family because the Mumbai blasts had just happened.
He told Chanda Kochhar, “When Sridevi came to my house, when this bomb blast had happened, she used to get along very well with Arjun. He said, “Arjun was her favourite when she stayed as a guest. He didn’t know what was happening. I remember those days vividly but somehow, things don’t go the way you planned. Those days Sridevi would be put up at the Hotel Sea Rock. When I came to know about the blasts, I immediately called up her mother and insisted that Sridevi would no longer be staying there. I sent my staff to get her home. Then on, till the release of Roop Ki Rani in May 1993, Sridevi stayed in my house.”
He said that he was forthright about his affair with Sridevi to Mona. “My first wife, I told her, I had confessed to her,” he said and pointed to a ring on his finger. “Look at this ring that I am wearing, and the ring that she (Sridevi) was wearing. Both were bought by Mona. I told her openly and that’s how she brought the children up without creating any kind of hatred towards me or the other kids.” But when he first confessed his feelings to Sridevi, she refused to speak to him for months, citing his married status as the issue.
Arjun has often spoken about the difficulties he experienced living away from his father, who moved out of the family home into a new house with Sridevi. But Arjun and Anshula reconnected with Boney in 2018, when Sridevi tragically passed away due to accidental drowning in Dubai. Earlier this week, the family united for Anshula’s engagement.
