Shilpa Shirodkar says husband left New Zealand, quit his ‘very succesful job' to be with her as she battled depression: ‘I wanted to be close to my sister Namrata'

Indian Express

18-07-2025

Shilpa Shirodkar, a prominent name in Bollywood during the 1990s, known for her work with legends like Ramesh Sippy, Mithun Chakraborty, Amitabh Bachchan, Mukul Anand, and Gulshan Kumar, took a 13-year hiatus from show business to raise her family in London. She returned to Mumbai in the early 2010s, and although she eventually made her comeback on television, it wasn't initially part of her plan. In a candid conversation with Pinkvilla, Shilpa opened up about her journey back to India, not with the intention to return to films or television, but simply to be closer to her sister, Namrata Shirodkar, and to find solace following personal tragedy.
She revealed, 'I didn't get films and I didn't try also. I didn't even try for television also. In fact, when I came back to India, I wasn't in a great mental state. I had lost my parents and I was in really bad depression. And I actually came back to India to be next to my sister (Namrata Shirodkar). I had nothing on my mind about work. I came back in 2010, and I didn't even ask anyone to give me work or express the desire to work. But when Diya ji and Tony ji called… I didn't even know anything about PR at all, neither did I do some photoshoot or anything. My idea was only that I don't want to go back and want to stay close to my sister.'
She further added, 'So my daughter Anushka started her schooling and everything slowly started settling in. Soon we decided that we will set up a production house, and I'll produce content for television as it was still an upcoming industry back then. It was obviously big but there was still space in regional, so we wanted to do something there. So when I got Ek Mutthi Aasmaan, I don't know how I got it. I was only told this is a good production house and I had already seen Banegi Apni Baat, so I knew these were good producers and I loved what they narrated to me. Zee was also happy to take me onboard, and I got it like that. I didn't go looking for it.'
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Shilpa also opened up about the difficult time following the loss of her parents, which led to a deep depression. 'It happened after my parents passed. It was very tough. I was in London, alone, with my husband and my Anushka. And Aparesh was very, very, very successful. He was doing so well in his space of work. Anushka was settled in her school. She had her own friends. Everything, everything was in place. But when my parents passed so immediately, one after the other… I don't know, I just couldn't handle it. And I was getting treated there, but I just wanted to come back. You know, there's a saying that behind every successful man, there's a woman. I think, and I say this from my own experience, behind every successful woman is a very, very understanding husband. And a very, very tolerant man. And I wouldn't have been doing this today, I wouldn't be sitting in front of you, if my husband hadn't been there. Because in 2010 when I decided to come back, Aparesh's career was at its peak but he realised that I need to come back, and he left everything and came back. He quit his job and came back and said let's try something new.'
Discussing the symptoms and depth of her depression, Shilpa spoke with heart-breaking honesty: 'I used to cry a lot, I had no control over my tears. Even when anything good happened, still I couldn't stop crying. I had become a robot, wasn't interested in anything. I had put on so much weight, I had dark circles, I had no interest in life. I used to not go out, don't do anything, was just doing things because I had a young child, dropping her and picking her up from school. Wasn't talking to anyone at home. If I talked, there was misunderstanding. In fact, I just wanted to hit my head on the wall. I was seeing a counsellor, I was taking anti-depressants, I was in a mess. And the only person I was talking to was my sister, as I thought she is the only one who can understand me. I used to get so angry on Aparesh and even take out my anger on our daughter by hitting her, because I didn't know what to do.'