Neena Gupta reveals the ‘small things’ that attracted her to Viv Richards, enough for them to have an unplanned baby – Hindustan Times
Actor Neena Gupta spoke about the chapter on Vivian Richards in her recently-released autobiography, Sach Kahun Toh, and how she decided to write about certain things and leave some details out.
Neena and the former West Indies cricketer had a child, daughter Masaba Gupta, but never married. In an interview, Neena said that she appreciated certain qualities about him.
Asked what about him ‘clicked’ with her and made her willing to have a child with him, the actor said at a recent event organised by a leading daily, “I didn’t plan the baby. I think I mentioned in the book how I saw him for the first time, and the main thing that attracted me to him was his down-to-earth humanness, in spite of being such an international cricketer, in spite of being such a big name, in spite of being so famous.”
She continued, “His being down-to-earth, his being like a normal person, I think that’s what attracted me to him. In life, I value small-small things much more than the bigger things. I think that’s what matters in life, because money, a house, all this comes and goes. It feels nice to have these things, but if you don’t like living in that house, then that house is pointless. I was very blessed by the small little things, which he had as a human being.”
Neena said that while writing the book, she never consciously thought of omitting any detail. She said that if there’s something that didn’t make it to the page, it was probably for a reason and that she didn’t feel like writing it.
In the book, Neena wrote that when she was pregnant with Masaba, she was advised to get married to a gay man to avoid controversy in the press. She also revealed that actor Satish Kaushik offered to marry her and pass the child off as his own.