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

Actress Janhvi Kapoor recalls having a panic attack after watching a tribute video to her mother while promoting her debut film, Dhadak.

Janhvi Kapoor faced a personal loss right before her Bollywood debut when her mother, Sridevi, died unexpectedly. Now, the actress has admitted that she was trying to put on a brave face in public but was paralyzed by a panic attack on the set of a dancing reality program when they played an emotional film in her mother’s memory. (Also read: Janhvi Kapoor believes no one will come close to mom Sridevi’s stardom: ‘It’s uncommon, just once in a lifetime.’)

Janhvi made her acting debut in the 2018 film Dhadak, the same year her mother died. In a recent interview with Mashable India, the actor reflected on the moment when she went out to promote her debut film while dealing with the sadness of losing her mother.

Struggling with panic attacks
She opened out about it, saying, “I attended a dance show shortly after the incident. I was marketing Dhadak, and everything was really new. My team was making sure I wasn’t reminded of my mother, but this concert didn’t warn us they were going to pay respect to her. So they played an audio-visual of all my mother’s songs with an emotional narration, and the youngsters started dancing in tribute.”

Janhvi agrees that the musical tribute was beautiful, but she was unprepared for it.

“I couldn’t breathe any longer. I began howling and crying. I dashed off the stage and raced to my van. Had a proper panic attack. They obviously edited all that out and instead put up another tape of me clapping and smiling, and people were like, ‘Does she really not give a f***?‘ But what transpired was quite different,” she explained.

Facing judgment upon her mother’s death
There were instances when she was scrutinized for how she handled the loss following her mother’s death. The actor believes “other people’s judgement was weird.”

Janhvi clarified her position by stating that if she did not mention her mother in interviews, she would be labeled as snobby. However, she was only trying to be cheerful and cope, and some claimed she was unaffected by Sridevi’s passing. She described it as a really confused period.

About Janhvi and Sridevi.
Janhvi is the first child of Sridevi and filmmaker Boney Kapoor. She also has a sister named Khushi Kapoor. Sridevi made her debut as a child performer in the 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai, at the age of four. Later, she made her Hindi film debut with Rani Mera Naam (1972) and rose to prominence with roles in Julie (1975) and Solva Sawan (1979). She went on to star in other blockbusters, including Himmatwala, Mawaali, Tohfa, Naya Kadam, Mr India, Chandni, Sadma, Nagina, ChaalBaaz, Khuda Gawah, and Laadla, among others.

Her last significant picture was Judaai in 1997, following which she took a vacation to focus on motherhood. She returned later in 2012 with English Vinglish.

In 2018, Sridevi drowned accidentally in a Dubai hotel. Her last film was Mom, however she also appeared in Zero as a cameo. Janhvi’s debut film, Dhadak, was released in theaters in July 2019. Janhvi will next appear in Mr and Mrs Mahi, opposite Rajkummar Rao.