Tusshar Kapoor, who became a father through surrogacy last year, has been discovering his new life as a single working father. In an interview with Cinestaan.com, the actor spoke extensively about his 16-month-old son Laksshya.
Kapoor started shooting for Golmaal Again when Laksshya was just a few months old, and he was nervous about balancing his work and family life.
“I was a little nervous at first," Kapoor admitted. "I kept planning that I will wake up at 6 every morning, then spend an hour or so with him because he wakes up at 7, then go to the gym and then go to the shoot. But I just took it as it came. I used to wake up aaram se, spend half an hour with him, work out and all that. Then have him come to the shoot around 4:30 pm after his second nap in the afternoon. Fortunately, the first schedule was at Yash Raj Studios, so he could be with me.”
Kapoor's son also accompanied him to the Hyderabad schedule of the film though Kapoor did not take him on the sets. “We used to pack up by 5pm every day because of the light," he said. "So I used to be with him for a couple of hours in the hotel, poolside. It just worked out well. We then had a two-month break since Rohit [Shetty] was shooting Fear Factor. So that time I got continuous time with him. So where there’s a will, there are ways. You don’t have to do either this or that. You can do both. You just have to manage your time.”
Laksshya also mingled with his dad's Golmaal Again co-stars during the Hyderabad schedule, especially with co-star and friend Tabu.
Kapoor now mostly discusses parenting issues with old friend Kareena Kapoor Khan. Laksshya and Kapoor Khan's son Taimur are playmates. “When we meet, we only discuss nannies, schools, sleep timings, how to take care in the outdoors, how do you take kids on flights, prams, when they will start walking — only this! That’s all we discuss," said Kapoor. “We also speak about Golmaal since she has been part of the franchise, but that’s just a little bit and much later. First it's all what you are feeding the baby and stuff.”
Unlike Kapoor Khan and her husband Saif Ali Khan, who are contemplating sending Taimur to boarding school, Kapoor does not want to send his boy away just yet. “I won’t send him to boarding school," Kapoor said. "I will send him abroad after 12th or something, like I went. I want to be close to him. He is born to a single father. He has only me and my family. I don’t think he should stay away."
Kapoor said he had not seen any examples of children who went to boarding schools being stronger or tougher. "All my friends who went to boarding schools also went through the same problems that I went through," he said, adding that his parents had wanted to send him, too, but "I refused to go.”
The Kapoors are very hands-on as a family. The actor said that even as he was busy with this interview, his sister Ekta was taking care of Laksshya. “There is always fear that because he only has a dad, he should not get less love," he said. "But because of that he gets so much more love from my family that now I am scared kahin bigad na jaye [he should not be spoilt]."