Raksha Bandhan is meant to celebrate the sacred bond between brothers and sisters, but in a real-life plot twist worthy of a Bollywood film, one of India’s most celebrated actresses, Sridevi, once tied a rakhi to a man who would later become her husband – producer Boney Kapoor – and the father of her two daughters.
The unusual moment was reportedly orchestrated by Boney Kapoor’s mother.
Aware of her son’s feelings for Sridevi, she handed the actress a rakhi on a puja thali during Raksha Bandhan.
Sridevi, familiar with the custom from her South Indian upbringing, entered the room ready to perform the ritual, but Boney gently suggested she put the thali aside and not proceed.
At the time, Boney Kapoor was married to Mona Shourie and was father to Arjun and Anshula Kapoor. His growing closeness to Sridevi became a major talking point in the media.
Later, rumours spread that Sridevi was pregnant before their wedding. Boney revealed that they had secretly married in Shirdi on June 2, 1996, but only made the marriage public in January 1997. Their first daughter, Janhvi Kapoor, was born in March that year.
According to Boney, the pregnancy happened shortly after their wedding and during their honeymoon. Due to his existing marriage, they kept their union under wraps for months.
He added that Sridevi, being deeply religious, refused to wed while pregnant, which is why there was no public ceremony after the private vows.
Over time, their daughters Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor followed in their mother’s footsteps into the film industry, while Arjun Kapoor also became a Bollywood star.
Despite the initial controversies, the family later found its own balance, though the love story remains one of the most unconventional in Bollywood history.
