Bollywood Blitzkrieg - Wife Ho Toh Aisi 
By Subhash K. Jha, April 16, 2007 - 05:31 IST
Star-wives are a breed apart. You think of them as these bored card-playing over-rich shop-a-holic women. And you may be right.
Some years ago I remember visiting this big bragging TV star's home where his wife walked in with big shopping bags.
Frankly she looked more bored than tired. She looked at the bags then looked up at me and explained apologetically, 'I've nothing else to do.'
Her ennui was self-explanatory. Her husband was rumored to bring his girlfriends home-and not just for dinner-and have extended sittings with them in a room adjoining the one where I sat with the star-wife.
That image of the bored, cheated, bereft star-wife has remained alive in my subconscious, though since then I've met many very happily married star-wives.
My most recent brush with a star-wife was Namrata Shirodkar who's married to the reigning Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu. On a recent visit to Hyderabad I dropped in to meet one of Bollywood's loveliest products, now blissfully pregnant and ensconced in a posh locality in her adopted city.
As Namrata showed me around her beautiful but manageable home I wondered if she was happy being in the shadows. "Oh absolutely! There's no stress about being a star-wife. I'm glad to be known as just Mahesh's wife," she laughed her tinkling laughter. Namrata's sister Shilpa too is blissfully married and settled in London. And if there's any reason why Namrata wants a bigger house, it's to have her parents and her sister and family over at the same time.
Does she miss being a part of Bollywood? "Not at all! Friends keep dropping in. Tabu is in and out of Hyderabad constantly. In fact she's planning to move to this city and is building her home. And the other day Sanju (Dutt) called out of the blue. He got so sentimental. He promised to be here at the time of my baby next month," Namrata's eyes light up.
Juhi Chawla with one foot in Bollywood and one out of it, too is far from the stereotypical image of the derelict if not defiant star-wife(it's common knowledge golly-Bolly-wood that the wife of a huge star is a cocaine addict).Juhi just doesn't care about stardom any longer. "I'd rather be with my family than at some dingy studio playing some hero's wife or bhabhi, wondering why I'm there."
Twinkle Kumar, nee Kapadia, was never keen on acting. I remember we used to have these huge fights about her lack of initiative about her career. But Twinkle (who hates to be called that) is having a ball. While husband Akshay makes all the millions, and son Aarav looks after himself, she has her own business in interiors which keeps her busy.
Rumours and whispers about Akshay don't bother Twinkle/Tina at all. Yup, life couldn't be rosier for this closely-knit family.
"The thing about stars is, once they're married they know the sanctity of marriage is equal to the comfort and security the so-called obsolete institution provides," says Madhavan who's been blissfully wedded to his sweetheart Sarita for several years. "It's not as if temptation doesn't raise its head, or that I don't react to it like any hot-blooded man. But I know the doom that lies at the end of the one-night stand. I firmly believe in Shah Rukh Khan's line-'Better to have peace of mind than a piece of arse.'
Sarita is far from the stereotypical picture of the housewife. "If I look after my home and son, it's because I choose to. No one, least of all my husband, is forcing me to be a housewife," she says.
Maddy's new home in Chennai has separate rooms for both his parents and his in-laws. Sarita's parents come and stay as and when, without feeling embarrassed about living with their damaad.
Like it or not, the image of the star-wife as the neglected frustrated shop-o-holic with toy boys to kill time, is defunct. Today's average star-wife knows how to get what she wants from her husband and from life. Whether it's Malaika Arora-Khan or Suzanne Khan the star-wife is no walk-over.
If caught cheating, they would rather break their husband's jewels than make-and-break the family jewels.
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