The Bachchan Women: Into The World Of Jaya, Shweta and Navya

Amitabh Bachchan calling on FaceTime; JAYA comparing photographs of NAVYA and her at the same age; SHWETA making fun of her mother posing, only to realise Navya was doing the same to her... At our cover shoot, one thing was clear—the Bachchan-Nanda women share a bond that’s as special as it’s normal. Sure, there are disagreements and conflicts, but there are also memories of Euro Disney, of evenings in pyjamas, and a closeness that can only be shared by mothers and (grand)daughters. 

- Priyanka Khanna

JAYA BACHCHAN

She’s a stickler for discipline, a sentimentalist (she’s carefully saved her children’s clothes and school badges) and is known to shoot from the hip. Mother of two, and grandmother of three, Jaya Bachchan tells us that even at 69 she’s constantly learning.

There’s a moment in the film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) where Jaya Bachchan’s character turns to her on-screen (and real-life) husband and says simply, “Keh diya.” Turns out, the scene’s a bit of a Bachchan family legend, something her grandkids Agastya and Navya Naveli watch over and over again in glorious slow-motion. “They tease me and make fun of my expressions,” she says in mock exasperation. For daughter Shweta, the disciplinarian her mother plays in the film remains one of Jaya’s most memorable roles.

A case of art mirroring real life? “Well, I was a strict parent because I am an order freak,” says Jaya. “But besides telling my children to be good human beings, entertain positive thoughts and behave well, I have never pushed them in any way.”

The children, of course, being 43-year-old Shweta Bachchan Nanda and 41-year-old Abhishek Bachchan. Her children now have children of their own (19-year-old Navya Naveli Nanda and 16-year-old Agastya Nanda; and five-year-old Aradhaya Bachchan respectively), and Jaya, by her own admission, is happiest playing the role of her lifetime—that of a loving grandmother.

FAMILY MATTERS