Three years ago when Covid struck, Abhishek Bachchan was in hospital and he wished all his four sisters (three cousins and Shweta) from the hospital posting a lovely picture of them having lunch after the Raksha Bandhan ceremony.
“When I was a lot younger, we used to have a holiday and a day off from school. I have three cousins — Naina, Namrata and Nilima (Ajitabh Bachchan’s daughters). We did the rakhi tying ceremony, have a meal and then they would go off with the measly amount that I could give them,” says Abhishek.
The actor may be the son of the biggest screen icon, Amitabh Bachchan, but even he had simple beginnings.
“When you are a child, even Rs 11 was a lot. Now everyone is grown up and busy, and my sisters are all over the place. But, I try to be with my sister, Shweta, and get a rakhi tied. That’s about it. It’s not a grand function. It is a simple one with the family,” he confides.
One can recall Shweta also talking once about how she borrowed money from her little brother Abhishek when she was in boarding school to pay for her food bills.
Abhishek shares that his sisters are his strength. “As I said earlier, it is not possible for everyone to be with me on rakhi, but they do try and be there as much as they can physically. Mentally, they are all with me,” he says.
Abhishek also often keeps posting flashback pictures with his sisters with funny captions. “They really don’t like me posting that, but I can’t help doing it. They will kill me for posting the pictures, but then they will always be there for me when I need them and vice versa,” he avers, taking a dip into nostalgia.
Abhishek has often flown down to Mumbai from the middle of his shoots, taking a few hours off, to spend Raksha Bandhan with his sisters. The actor was promoting his film Manmarziyaan at Nagpur in 2018 when he took time off to fly to Mumbai and got rakhi tied from Shweta and flew to Amritsar after that. “It is always a small effort to try and be home for a while and adjust my timings without disturbing professional commitments. It is important for me to be there with Shweta and spend time with her on this day,” he says.
During one of the episodes of show his father hosts, he was seen complaining how the latter always loved Shweta but he had no qualms about it. Shweta had also spoken about how Abhishek was his mother’s pet and he reacted by stating that his dad’s face would always light up when he saw her.
From a homemaker earlier, Shweta too blossomed to being an entrepreneur, apart from being a writer and also appearing in a jewellery commercial with her father. And, Abhishek is very proud to see her spreading her wings.
“Shweta has an amazing set of talents. She always had a flair for writing apart from other skills and used to help me pen down my English essays when I was in college as well. Everyone finds their mojo at different times in their lives and I am really happy that she has found hers,” says Abhishek.
