Juhi Babbar is Raj Babbar and Nadira Babbar’s daughter. Juhi who is largely involved in theatre now and doing exceedingly well there, had met her now husband Anup Soni during a play. At that point in time, Anup was already married to Ritu and had two daughters. They got divorced in 2010 and within a few months, in 2011, Anup married Juhi. For those not in the know, Juhi had also come out of her first marriage with film-maker Bejoy Nambiar.
In a recent interview, Juhi was asked if she was hesitant to be with Anup as he was already married and had children. Talking about how she met Anup, the actress said they met on a play called Begum Jaan. She said in a chat with Lehren, “Earlier another actor was doing Begum Jaan but we had to change the actor and we spoke to few of them. It clicked with Anup Soni and my mother was more than happy because we were wanting that a popular actor comes on board. The add-on was that he was a theatre actor as well so it was sone pe suhaga.”
The actress was asked that things were brewing between her and Anup under her mom Nadira’s nose and people say they had good chemistry. Reacting to it, Juhi said, “Main phir yeh kahungi ke hum dono mein doston wali acchi chemistry thi. But we were going through similar situation in our personal life. Then our friends made us think about it and told us that if we got together it would be nice.”
She further added, “Aisa toh nahi kahungi ke bohot difficult tha but ek thought process went into it. But the main thought process had to be Anup’s But he also knew. Jab iss tarah ke haalat hote hai, tab kinhi do logon mein kya guzarta hai aur kya guzra hai, koi nahi jaanta. Badaa aasaan hota hai to pinpoint. Toh sar aankhon par kariye because we are public figures. (The decision had to be taken by Anup and he knew what he was doing. When two people go through something like this, ten people can pin point because we are public figures, but then what those two people go through, only they know and feel it).”
Juhi said that while people may have things to say, it all depends on how you take it. “But yeh hum par hai ke hum uss cheez ko kaise le. Aur yeh cheez maine apni family se hi seekhi hai – ‘mooh bandh and smile’. (I’ve learnt from my family to remain quiet and just smile).”
When asked about how her parents took it, especially her mother since she also has experienced something similar. Raj Babbar was already married to Nadira when he fell in love with Smita Patil and married for the second time. “Kisi bhi parent ko apne bacche ki shadi se pehle ghabrahat hoti hai, toh kyunki mere saath ek episode ho chuka tha jisse mere maa baap ko bhi dhakka lagaa tha. (Every parent is scared and worried for thier child when they decide to get married. More so in my case as I had already gone through a bad episode earlier). So, they were worried when I decided to do it for the second time and even in this case, it wasn’t the perfect scenario. But they trusted me, they trusted Anup. He could create that faith in my parents.”
Juhi and Anup have a son named Imaan.
