Janhvi Kapoor, then 20, was shooting for her first film Dhadak, when the unexpected happened. Her mother and iconic actress Sridevi, had flown to Dubai to attend her nephew's wedding with husband Boney Kapoor and younger daughter Khushi Kapoor. As fate would have it, Boney and Khushi returned to Mumbai after the festivities but Sridevi stayed to meet her sister. Janhvi, worried about her mother staying alone in the foreign city, asked her father to go to Dubai at once. But little did anyone know that the sweet surprise the father-daughter trio was planning was about to get bitter.

The very night Boney reached Dubai and met Sridevi, the veteran died of accidental drowning in the bathtub of her hotel room. Lives changed in the Kapoor family with their beloved's sudden passing away. And while many expected that Dhadak would be pushed, Janhvi braved the tragedy and returned to the sets of her debut film to resume shooting. The young girl was determined to make her mumma proud after all. In a recent group media interaction, director Shashank Khaitan spoke about Janhvi's courageous front and handling the sensitive situation.

"I think more than any of us, it was she and her family who dealt with the situation beautifully. Honestly, it’s a situation I can’t even say anything about. So I was just amazed at the young girl and the professionalism they showed to get back to the sets so fast. So I am amazed at the way she dealt with it and I am really proud of my entire team as well because we ensure that we give her a comforting environment, keep focused on work and not keep reminding her of that."

Contrary to common belief, it wasn't Sridevi or Boney who introduced their daughter to Karan Johar. If Khaitan's words are anything to go by, it was ace designer Manish Malhotra, best friend of both Johar and Sridevi, who urged the filmmaker to meet the gorgeous girl. Khaitan says, "Jahnvi actually came in thanks to Manish Malhotra. He knew Jahnvi for a very long time and he told Karan to meet her. This guy is doing nataks, meet her. Karan spent a few days with her over a period of months and he told me Shashank just meet this girl, she’s a full Bollywood heroine."

Elaborating on how Janhvi never 'signed' Dhadak, he continued, "I said okay and I liked her. We started spending time and making her do scenes from Badri just to know what she can do and when I started seeing the way she does the scene and they way she responds to direction, I was immediately convinced that I found Parthavi and that character needed certain royalty in it which she had naturally and we didn’t have that moment ki aaj tum dhadak sign karne wali ho. Naturally, we started doing it. One thing led to the other and we were doing the film together."

Desk: Aayushi Sharma