On Pankaj Kapur’s birthday, how he re-entered son Shahid Kapoor’s life years after divorcing wife Neelima Azeem

Actor Shahid Kapoor shares a strong bond with his father, Pankaj Kapur, now. But that wasn’t always the case. On Pankaj’s 66th birthday, revisit the story of their evolving relationship, in their own words.

In a 2015 Hindustan Times interview, Shahid said that even though his dad separated from his mother, Neelima Azeem, when he was just a toddler, he was never an insecure kid. “My parents separated when I was three, but I was extremely secure as a child,” he said. “It has a lot to do with the kind of effort dad and I made to keep it [our relationship] healthy, normal and positive. You know, sometimes, he says that he wants to shift out of town and lead a chilled-out life, maybe five or 10 years down the line. I don’t like that. He is a big part of my life.”

Also read: Neelima Azeem on divorce from Pankaj Kapur when Shahid Kapoor was 3.5 years old: ‘I didn’t decide to separate, he moved on’

Pankaj added, “As Shahid said, it is very difficult to explain. For a father, to separate from his son is not easy. It was a huge emotional loss for me [the last time around] and I started living with the hope that there will come a time when we will come close to each other again. And today, it’s a great feeling to sit next to him, see his work or hear him speak and bond with the family.” He continued, “Definitely, yes. I missed him every day, but there were professional constraints. What’s most fortunate is that once he turned 18, Shahid assisted me for a while, so we got to spend a lot of time with each other. Then, we started going for holidays together with the family, so the bonding increased, especially after we shifted to our new house.”

Shahid in a later interview to Deccan Chronicle admitted that as a child, he “didn’t have too much interaction” with his father. “My bond with my children will be very different from dad’s and mine,” he said.

In fact, the birth of Shahid’s children, Misha and Zain, has gone a long way in bringing him closer to his dad. “I became a dadu two years back and it’s always a delight having a new addition to the family. If you are finding him cute, just imagine what would be my reaction on seeing the little one and Zain is a beautiful name. I am happy that Shahid’s family is now complete. We are all full of joy and are absolutely delighted,” Pankaj had told Pinkvilla after Zain’s birth in 2018.

Also read: Shahid Kapoor’s dad Pankaj Kapur hails son as ‘one of the best actors of his generation’, says Kabir Singh proves it

Shahid said in an appearance on BFFs with Vogue that his dad that after the birth of his kids, he’ll finally understand how important it is for a child and parent to remain in contact. He said, “What my dad told me was that ‘Now, you will know all the complaints that I have always had against you’. Because the one thing my dad keeps telling me is that I don’t call him enough. And I pretty much call him almost every day! But he still always complains about the fact that ‘we don’t connect enough, we don’t spend time enough’ and finally when obviously Misha happened, he told me, ‘Now you will know what it’s like when you miss your child’.”

Now, having worked together in Mausam as director and star, and in Shaandaar as co-actors, Shahid and Pankaj will collaborate for the third time in the upcoming film Jersey.

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