“People find it hard to believe, but I didn’t feel like a star until Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. Before that, I was just popular. But after the film, young kids would recognise me, old ladies would want to come close and pinch my cheeks. The impact the film made was phenomenal.”
Awarded the Beauty Legend title at the Vogue Beauty Awards, our beloved star, Madhuri Dixit looks heavenly in the August Issue of Vogue India. The one who stepped out of her A list Bollywood celebrity frenzied life to marry NRI heart surgeon Dr. Sriram Nene talks about life after marriage, striking the right balance between Mumbai and Denver and the secrets of aging gracefully.
Star Secrets…
Despite her many voluntary disappearing acts, her fans have always wanted to know more about their darling star, which she finds very amusing, “I have never been star-y or taken my star status seriously,” she says. “I like being in front of a camera. Everything else—the fame, the flashbulbs—those are just peripherals that don’t matter. It’s baggage, and I don’t like to carry baggage.”
The ‘normal’ life…
Humble as she is known to be, Madhuri says in spite of the celebrity status she is a very normal person with the usual dreams. “I wanted to get married, I wanted to have kids and I wanted to give time to my children so I [could] take them to school and do their homework with them. I was very clear in my head. For me, glamour is not everything. There is a life outside films.”
Knowing M F Hussain…
When quizzed about what was it like to meet M F Hussain for the first time she said, “I’d heard about his work long before I’d met him, but I remember Rikkuji [her manager] telling me he wanted to meet. He came home, all white hair, bare feet and paintbrushes, displaying a childlike enthusiasm even though he was 85. It was the first of a lot of meetings.”
Raising children…
Talking about what she would want to do with the rest of her life, “Pass on my values to my kids. We gave our son $20 for his birthday recently, and he put it in his piggy bank. But when people came around collecting for the disaster in Japan, he asked if he could donate the money. I’d like to think I’m doing it right.”
More on Madhuri Dixit Nene and her pictures in the August Issue of Vogue India