"I was in disbelief."
Rani Mukerji opened up about a personal tragedy while speaking at the 2023 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) in Australia.
Rani said she experienced a miscarriage five months into her second pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Business Today.
The miscarriage took place in 2020 before the filming of her movie Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway.
Rani Mukerji said she refrained from talking about it earlier as it could have been seen as a promotional tactic.
The Bollywood actress is married to director-producer Aditya Chopra.
They have a seven-year-old daughter, Adira.
The couple is private about the family and both Rani and Aditya are not on social media.
In early 2023, Rani had also spoken about how her daughter Adira was born two months premature and had to be kept in the NICU as she was ‘really tiny’.
The actor was talking to Kareena Kapoor on her chat show What Women Want.
At the festival, Rani Mukerji said:
“Maybe this is the first time I am making this revelation because in today’s world, every aspect of your life is discussed publicly, and becomes an agenda for talking about your film to get more eyeballs.
“Obviously, I didn’t speak about this when I was promoting the film because it would have come across as me trying to speak about a personal experience that would propel the film…
“So, it was around the year when COVID-19 struck. It was 2020.
“I got pregnant with my second baby at the end of 2020 and I unfortunately lost my baby five months into my pregnancy.”
Ten days after the miscarriage, Rani Mukerji said, she received a call from producer Nikkhil Advani for Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway.
The film, released in March 2023, is inspired by the real-life story of an Indian mother who was separated from her kids by the Norwegian Child Welfare Services in 2011.
The actress said:
“After I lost my baby, Nikhil (Advani) would have called me probably like 10 days later.”
“He told me about the story and I kind of immediately… not that I had to have the loss of a child to feel the emotion but sometimes there is a film at the right time of what you are going through personally to be able for you to connect with it instantly.
“When I heard the story, I was in disbelief. I never thought in a country like Norway an Indian family would have had to go through.”
Helmed by Ashima Chibber, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway also featured Neena Gupta, Jim Sarbh and Anirban Bhattacharya, among others.
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