India — Actor Randhir Kapoor and his wife, actor Babita Kapoor, are among the few people who prove that it is very much possible to stay friends even after a marriage has ended. Babita and Randhir had a love marriage in 1971 but went their separate ways in 1988. However, their friendship and willingness to be the best parents to their two daughters have endured.
On Randhir’s 74th birthday, we are revisiting an old interview of his to Hindustan Times, in which he spoke all about his equation with Babita and how they decided to bring up Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.
Despite being separated and living in different houses, Randhir had said in 2017 that nothing much has changed between him and Babita. “She’s a crucial part of my life. She has given me two lovely kids. We are all grown up people, and we preferred to stay separately, [but] we are not enemies,” he had said. And nothing much indeed seems to be different. Karisma and Kareena often post pictures of their parents from family get-togethers and holidays, where they join their daughters.
Randhir had said that the two chose to part ways as she did not agree with his lifestyle. “She found that I was a terrible man who drank a lot and came home late, which was something she didn’t like. And I didn’t want to live the way she wanted, and she couldn’t accept me as I am, though it was a love marriage. So it’s okay. We had two lovely children to look after. She brought them up in the best way and they have excelled in their career. What else I could have asked for as a father,” he had said.
About the possibility of divorce, he had said, “Divorce for what? Why should we head for divorce? I don’t intend to get married again, and nor does she.”
Even Kareena spoke about her parents’ friendship in an interview last year. “My parents have a lovely relationship because sometimes, two people realise that their lives aren’t exactly going the way they planned, so it’s better that they don’t stay together but they can still be friends and sometimes, take decisions about the kids. It’s not necessary that they have to be staying under the same roof or being there 24*7 together. I think both Karisma and I understood that at a very early age, that this kind of relationship can exist as well. It has existed for almost 35 years with my parents and I see that in times when they need to come together, they are always together, but they prefer to have their day-to-day lives separately, which is wonderful,” she told Mojo Story.
The past couple of years have been very traumatic for the Kapoor family. Last year, Randhir lost his sister Ritu Nanda, then brother Rishi Kapoor and last week, he also lost his youngest brother Rajiv Kapoor. His two daughters and Babita have been by his side through it all.