Page 7 - Seniorstoday March 2024 Issue

Ambani’s DNA. The youngest in a large Los Angeles was a completely new frame of
suburban Mumbai family, with a brother reference far removed from the trappings
and seven sisters (she is the youngest), who of stardom – she lived with her childhood
remain her “backbone even today”, her friend Sachu, did household chores, drove
parents grounded her with firm roots while to classes. “It was reinvention in every
giving her the wings to fly. “People use the sense of the word,” she laughs. “But it is a
term ‘destiny’s child’,” she remarks with a decision I have never regretted. I always
chuckle. “I prefer the term ‘instinct’s child’ believe you should leave any situation
when it comes to my life! And my instincts gracefully on your own terms before it
have never ever let me down.” leaves you, whether it is a career or a
Indeed, she has always been led by relationship!”
instinct – a need to grow and evolve has The next dramatic turn in her life took
informed her every endeavour. It has place when Anil proposed to her and she
been a deeply personal process where returned to India to begin their life together
calculation and ambition have played no in 1991. “I actually surprised myself at
role. “My dream was to study design in how well I could adapt to married life,” she
Paris. I never thought of becoming a model says with candour. “Of course, it helped
or actor,” she says wryly. But life decreed that we shared a similar upbringing.
otherwise. From being selected by Femina And I was welcomed with open arms
to represent India in the Miss Teenage into this extended family that, like my
Intercontinental pageant in Aruba at the own, balanced convention with change so
age of 16 – “it was my first exposure to a effortlessly.” In fact, she credits her father-
global event, and to the West” – to being in-law for opening her eyes even further
offered a film by Dev Anand, there was to both her own potential and the world at
a seismic shift in her life. And while she large, and her mother-in-law Kokilaben
had decided to stay on in college for the
first couple of years, she eventually had to
drop out. “There was no flexibility in the
system,” she recalls. “I enjoyed juggling
both college and the film industry initially
but eventually I had to take a call. My
parents allowed me to mull over my choices
and make my own decision.”
She followed her instinct once again when
she decided to pursue a diploma in interior
design and computers in Los Angeles after
a decade of success when she was at the
height of her popularity as an actor. “The
film industry gave me everything. I owe
so much of what I have and who I am to
that experience,” she reminisces. “Giving
it up at a time when I was successful was
another huge turning point.” Her life in With husband Anil

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #57 | MARCH 2024 7