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Dimple Kapadia, who made her acting debut with the 1973 film Bobby, married actor Rajesh Khanna at 16, shortly after she finished her debut film. At 17, she welcomed Twinkle, and at 20, she gave birth to Rinke. While at first, Dimple called her marriage to Rajesh Khanna as the ‘biggest high’ of her life, the couple soon started having marital troubles and they eventually separated a decade later. So Twinkle and Rinke grew up with their mom by their side, and such was the order of their household, that they never faced any kind of patriarchy in the house, as there were no men in the house.
In a recent conversation with Indian author, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq for Tweak India, Twinkle shared, “In my life I was very lucky that I never encountered patriarchy because I never really lived with any men. I grew up in a all-female household–my grandmother, my aunts. I didn’t even know there was inequality till I came into the (film) world.”
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Twinkle shared how, for the longest time, she mistook gender inequality as seniority. “I didn’t realise that (it was patriarchy) when my co-star would come for a shoot at 12, while I was supposed to be there at 9 with makeup. I just thought he was more senior. I didn’t see it as it is a difference because he is a man and I am a woman. I thought the same when he got a bigger room and I would end up in a small room. I didn’t think inequality, I simply thought he was more established and senior and I am new.”
She added, “It was in my 30s that I realised how unequal it was. I was lucky because I grew up with all these women. Whatever had to be fixed, we fixed it and whatever had to be done, we did it. If we had to earn money, we had to do it ourselves. At that time, it may have felt daunting but I think it was the greatest thing that ever happened. Because other women have to fight for the same things.”
Twinkle Khanna marked her acting debut in 1995 with the Bobby Deol-starrer film Barsaat. With several flops from her time of debut to 2001, the actor quit acting and married Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. She eventually started writing and wrote titles like – Mrs Funnybones, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, and Pyjamas Are Forgiving.
