'IT IS A TRAUMA THAT WE ALL HAVE LIVED'

A large part of this episode has come from my own life, the backlash I faced and my journey after having publicly claimed my identity.

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The episode everyone is talking about in Made In Heaven 2 has been directed by Neeraj Ghaywan.

Yes, it’s the Radhika Apte wedding in the episode titled The Heart Skipped A Beat, where her character belongs to a lower caste and she goes on to have a Buddhist wedding.

It’s a story taken from a page of Ghaywan’s own life.

“The Buddhist wedding you see is how my sisters got married,” Neeraj, who made the acclaimed film Masaan, “But having said that, foregoing my last name ‘Kumar’, much like Pallavi Menke, is not just my story. It has been the story of thousands and lakhs of us, who took time to claim our real identities.”

Congratulations on the massive impact of your episode The Heart Skipped A Beat in Made In Heaven 2. This episode must be very close to your heart.

Yes, because I put a lot of my personal life into it.

It was scary to put yourself out there for scrutiny.

The love the episode has received from over 200 countries is the catharsis I needed.

How did this opportunity to do something so relevant and personal come to you?

The writers, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti and Alankrita Shrivastava wanted to pursue an inter-caste wedding, centered around an accomplished scholar still facing caste prejudice during her wedding.

Please share that journey with us.

Many years ago, when I asserted my caste identity publicly, it was reported in a leading newspaper.

My house help happened to see that and kept asking me why my picture was there.

It took me three whole days to find the courage to tell her.

She has worked with me for over a decade, and she said it doesn’t matter to her.

This relieved me, so I spoke to my driver about it.