Madhuri Dixit's husband, Dr Shriram Nene, opens up about the price of healing, as she stood by in silence: ‘I saved lives at the expense of my own'

Time of India

03-05-2025

'She'd Ask About Me, and That Was the Sad Part'
From Sleepless Nights to Silent Strength
For years, as celebrated Bollywood actor Madhuri Dixit stepped away from the limelight to lead a quiet life in the United States, her husband, Dr Shriram Nene , was living his own high-stakes drama — not on screen, but in the operation theatres of Florida, where lives hung by a thread and time was a luxury he could never afford.In a candid conversation on INKtalks' YouTube channel, the cardiac surgeon-turned-health advocate revealed the emotional and physical toll his medical career once took on him. 'In my previous avatar as a heart surgeon ,' he recalled, 'it wasn't really possible most of the time to maintain a routine — they were calling me to emergencies at 3 am.' Discipline and focus were necessary, but personal health often became a casualty in his relentless pursuit to save others.Even Madhuri, known for lighting up the silver screen with her grace and charm, found herself playing the role of a concerned yet helpless partner. Dr Nene shared how she would often ask, "How are they doing?" referring to his patients, and he would say they were fine. But when she'd ask 'How are you doing?' his answer would be bittersweet — 'I saved another life at the expense of my own.'It was a reflection not just of physical exhaustion, but emotional depletion — a personal cost that rarely finds space in medical journals or news headlines.Madhuri, too, once opened up on her husband's YouTube channel, reminiscing about their early years of marriage during his residency. 'You were doing your residency in Florida. It was like calls every other day. I wouldn't see you for days. You were working sleepless nights, and by the time you'd come home, you would be so tired, you wouldn't even eat your dinner. You would just collapse.'Their love story — one that began in 1999 and still endures more than two decades later — is marked not by red carpets and film premieres, but by hospital corridors, late-night shifts, and two boys, Arin and Ryan, who now carry forward the legacy of resilience.Dr Nene's story serves as a poignant reminder of the invisible price that healthcare heroes pay behind closed doors. Even now, as he advocates for preventive health and lifestyle medicine, his voice is shaped by the years he gave to the operating room — and the personal health he had to trade for it. While the world saw Madhuri's graceful retreat from Bollywood as a pause, it was, in truth, an act of quiet solidarity.