Janhvi Kapoor had panic attack after watching Sridevi’s tribute video on a reality show: ‘They didn't tell us…’

Actor Janhvi Kapoor suffered a personal loss just before debuting in Bollywood when she lost her mother Sridevi unexpectedly. Now, the actor has confessed she was trying to keep a brave face in public, but was crippled with a panic attack on the set of a dance reality show when they played an emotional video in her mother’s memory. (Also read: Janhvi Kapoor feels no one will come close to mom Sridevi’s stardom: 'It’s rare, just a once in a lifetime')

Janhvi made her acting debut in 2018 with Dhadak, the same year her mother passed away. In a recent interview with Mashable India, the actor looked back at the time when she stepped out to promote her debut film while coping up with the grief of losing her mother.

Struggle with panic attack

Opening up about the same, she said, “I went on a dance show and it was right after the incident. I was promoting Dhadak and everything was very fresh. My team was taking care that I don’t get reminded of my mother, but this show didn’t tell us that they were going to give a tribute to mom. So they played an audio-visual of all my mother’s songs with an emotional voiceover, and these kids started dancing to pay homage.”

Janhvi admits that the musical tribute was beautiful, but she was not ready for it.

“I couldn’t breathe anymore. I started howling and crying. I ran off the stage and went to my van. Had a proper panic attack. They obviously cut all that out and instead put up another clip of me clapping and smiling, and people were like, ‘Does she really not give a f***?’ But what happened was very different,” she added.

Facing judgement after her mother’s death

There have been times when she was under scanner on how she dealt with the loss after her mother’s death. The actor feels “other people’s judgement was weird”.

Janhvi explained her view by saying that when she wouldn’t talk about her mother in interviews, she would be labelled as snooty. However, she was just trying to be happy and cope, and people said she wasn’t affected by Sridevi’s death. She called it a very confusing time.

About Janhvi and Sridevi

Janhvi is Sridevi’s first child with filmmaker Boney Kapoor. She also has a sister called Khushi Kapoor. Sridevi made her debut as a child artist when she was only four years old in the 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai. Later she made her debut in Hindi films with Rani Mera Naam (1972) and gained recognition after starring in Julie (1975) and Solva Sawan (1979). While she went on to appear in several blockbusters like Himmatwala, Mawaali, Tohfa, Naya Kadam, Mr India, Chandni, Sadma, Nagina, ChaalBaaz, Khuda Gawah and Laadla among others.

Her last major film was Judaai in 1997 after which she took hiatus and embraced motherhood. She made a comeback later in 2012 with English Vinglish.

Sridevi died in 2018 due to an accidental drowning in a Dubai hotel. While her last film was Mom, she also made a cameo appearance in Zero. Janhvi’s debut film Dhadak released in theatres in July of 2019. Janhvi will next be seen in Mr and Mrs Mahi, alongside Rajkummar Rao.