This Amitabh Bachchan heroine started working at the age of 9, faced crushing debt upon father's death, was not allowed to go to school
Aruna Irani has been acting for over 65 years now, but she began her journey because of financial pressures at home. Born in a family of eight siblings whose father became a gambling addict, Aruna Irani, the eldest of the lot, had to start earning at the age of nine and take care of her brothers and sisters growing up.
'There was a lot of poverty, but there was never a realization that we're poor. We were in our own world. That's why childhood is so wonderful: If you have a lot of money, you don't realize the abundance. And if don't have anything at all, you don't realize the paucity. We just wanted our stomachs to be full,' recalled Irani.
On Kunickaa Sadanand's podcast, Irani revealed her father didn't keep well most of the time so her mother just about managed to get the house running. 'Some days, we just survived on plain rice. But we never complained. It felt delicious too. We just ate what we got and slept. It was a very nice childhood,' added Irani.
Irani raised her seven siblings by working in films from the age of nine. She got them married and even helped start their businesses. 'God made me a strong woman. Good, I'm happy,' said Irani. 'When I was young and working, everybody would just ask, 'Would you like to go for coffee?' You knew what they really wanted. 'No, I don't drink coffee.' 'Oh, then have tea.' 'No, I don't drink either tea or coffee.' I used to respond with a smile. That's why Randhir Kapoor called me 'the river of no returns,'' said Irani.
'When I look back, I was an unpadh (educated) woman in that era. Even then, I survived and accomplished something. Today, girls are getting educated, but in my time, we were asked, 'Why do you need to study? Women only have to cook eventually.' Our father didn't educate us either. I forcefully got myself educated till fifth or sixth standard. He'd say, 'Now, you know ABCD, that's enough. Only your brothers will study now.' Because men had to study to get jobs,' Irani recalled. She said women are trained to just work like house help. Luckily, Aruna Irani was used as a backup actor in her father's drama company.
Drama didn't have as much currency back as compared to films, which is why Irani wasn't getting a lot of work in theatre then. 'I was neither a child artiste nor a young woman who could get work in films. Those five to seven years in between were very dangerous. We faced a lot of problems then. My father wasn't keeping well either so he'd keep visiting hospitals,' said Irani.
She said that her father then started betting on race horses. 'He used to think if he gets a jackpot, that'd solve all his problems. So whatever he had, he sold that off and betted on a horse. He even took loans from friends and I signed those papers just because my dad needed money. He lost everything,' recalled Irani.
She added that when her father was on the death bed, the creditors sealed their house. 'We didn't know how we'd repay the money. It was a debt of Rs 8-8.5 lakh plus interest back then. I was barely 20 years old. All my siblings were very young. The one immediately younger than me had already gotten married,' said Irani. Aruna recalled how the family was bankrupt and there was a kurki (auction) of their house and everything they owned. She said that often people they owed money to will show up with policemen at their doorstep.
She recalled how the creditors once turned up with the police when she was going for a shoot to Coimbatore. 'When I finally got work, these issues would happen. While in Coimbatore, me and my mother would keep worrying what would happen once we go back to Mumbai and where we'd get the money from. I'd barely get Rs 10,000 to 12,000 by working in a film then. That's how I gradually put together all the money and repaid the debt,' added Irani.
'My father always had a grudge that I'm a girl because I'm the eldest. If I was a boy, I'd have taken care of my siblings, mother, uncle, and his kids. The day he died, it was the best moment of my life when my father told me, 'Today, I'm very proud. Arun is my son, not my daughter. I'm content now that you'll take care of everyone.' I felt so great and nice,' said Irani. her big break was as Amitabh Bachchan's first heroine in Bombay to Goa.
Irani is now married to filmmaker Kuku Kohli, but when they first fell in love, he was a married man. 'I still don't understand why that happened. It's like a one-way street which you can't go back in. Then the other one is also used to you, so he doesn't let you go. I tried a lot to take a step back, but it didn't happen,' confessed Irani.
'When you're lonely and you feel attracted towards someone, then you get carried away. Your head doesn't function properly. You just feel great that you're happy, but you forget how sad you're going to be later (laughs). You just take on what you're getting then. I tried a lot to get married elsewhere, but he didn't let me. As soon as he'd get to know, he'd not leave me for a second,' said Irani.
Irani revealed she didn't have kids because she was already 40 by the time she got married. 'I'm a second wife's daughter. My dad married twice. He didn't have any kids from his first wife, which is why he married my mother. My father would tell my mother to tell me not to call him 'papa' in public because his first wife would object. Obviously, anyone would object. If I was in her shoes, I'd also object. I didn't like that,' said Irani.
Also Read — Aruna Irani reveals she battled breast cancer twice, opens up about keeping it private: 'Everything doubles'
She reasoned that she didn't want her kids to suffer the same way so she chose not to have kids at all. 'It's a new world now, but in the 1990s, it was still the same. Now, you can have kids even when you're not married. I laud Neena Gupta for her courage. I couldn't do that only for my child, not for me. I could face everyone, but my child shouldn't go through the same. Kids are very impressionable,' said Irani.
Actor Neena Gupta got pregnant during her affair with cricketer Vivian Richards and gave birth to daughter, designer Masaba Gupta. 'And if I had a child, I'd have to sit home to look after them. You don't have a baby so that a maid can take care of them. You have to give complete time to your child,' said Irani.
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