Shweta Tiwari is back on the tube after a hiatus of three years. The actor admits that she doesn’t watch television these days as her son, Reyansh Kohli, a toddler “watches cartoons on TV and doesn’t let her put anything else on”. “So, I usually read a book while I am with him and I have realised that kids follow actions, and he has begun enjoying books and always wants me to read stories to him,” she says, adding she hasn’t had any time to catch Big Boss 13.
Ask her about the difference between acting now, with a toddler at home and when she had her first born, daughter Palak, and she says, “When Palak was four months old, I had to work and shoot for Kasauti Zindagi Kay and I was hardly around to watch her grow up. I missed her first spoken word, her first tooth, her first step- and many other such joyful things as I was shooting. My parents took care of her. I didn’t go to her school events and neither was I there to hug her if she fell down. I missed her childhood. So, when my son was born, I decided that I won’t pick up an acting assignment till he is able to walk. Now, I am glad to be returning to acting on television with Mere Dad Ki Dulhan.”
With a famous mom, it is only a matter of time when Palak enters the entertainment industry. There have been reports about Palak’s debut in films and web shows but nothing has ever been confirmed. Shweta reveals that she does want to act but she wants to finish her graduation before she does. “She wants to be an educate actor and sound intelligent when she talks. She is focussed and has age on her side, so she is willing to wait for the right project. She wants to finish her studies and then look out. She has seen a lot about the industry through my experiences. I have been at my shoot right after a cyst operation, though I had eye infections, fever and other stress and pressure I went through. She is aware of the ways of the industry and the struggle I have been to,” she says.
Shweta is glad to be a part of a TV show that talks about a mature love story between two unlikely people. She plays an optimist who meets a grumpy widower, played by Varun Badola and has a daughter. “Such stories exist and people do want and most often, do find companionship in their 40s. But due to society or family pressure, they keep such matters under the radar as they don’t want to be judged for having a girlfriend or boyfriend in their budhapa. I hope this concept urges people to come out and feel free to break away from such mindsets and taboos, if any.”