Suchitra Krishnamoorthy was quite candid in a recent interview with RJ Siddharth Kanan, where she spoke about her marriage with Shekhar Kapur, and the reasons for their divorce.
It all started when Kapur did not want her to pursue an acting career after marriage.
Suchitra had already become something of a star by then, having acted in Kundan Shah's Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1994), starring Shah Rukh Khan.
'My husband was very clear that he doesn't want his wife to act. I said, 'Okay, no big deal.' I was too naive, too young to understand ki jab koi kisi ko bolta hai ki kaam mat karo, wo thinking kya hai,' Suchitra said in the interview.
'I always had more talent than ambition so I didn't think anything would stop in my life. Though it did.'
Suchitra's parents were against the relationship due to the large age gap between them.
Suchitra revealed that she met Shekhar Kapur when she was 19 and they got married three years later (in 1999).
'My parents were against this marriage as Shekhar was my mother's age at that time and he was divorced and from the film industry,' Suchitra said.
'My mother sat at my feet and begged me not to go forward with this marriage. They asked me to have an affair and get it out of my head. But I was sure that this is what I want and it is something that I brought on myself.'
She went on to add: 'Actually, when I got pregnant, main shadi chhod rahi thi. I was moving to the Berklee College of Music. Mujhe part scholarship mil gaya tha and I wanted to learn music because it was always my dream. But I discovered I was pregnant.'
'So fate has its own way of unravelling itself and unravelling your life story. So I stayed for a few years phir I was like, forget it mere se nahi hota.'
'I remember a lot of very posh ladies telling me, "You'll be finished. Just have another baby.' A lot of women do that. When marriage is in peril, bachcha kar lete hain. So maine kaha nahi, what's the big deal?
'I would rather be on my own and live my own story with dignity then carry on in something that's soul-crushing for me, that's not serving me, just for status and image and money. Maine bola tha main ja ke jhopdi mein rahungi, mujhe kuchh nahi chahiye.'
About Kapur's fidelity, she said, 'I don't think marriages break because of infidelity, they break up because of disrespect.'
Suchitra and Shekhar's marriage lasted 12 years, and they have a daughter named Kaveri.
