When Shammi Kapoor’s son talked about how ‘second mom’ Neela Devi refused to have kids: ‘No Hindu woman would do this’

Actor Shammi Kapoor and his kids were left heartbroken at the death of his wife, actor Geeta Bali in 1965. Geeta, one of India’s first female superstars, was enjoying great success at the movies, when she contracted small pox at the age of 34 and died in just 15 days.

Shammi and Geeta had two kids, son Aditya and daughter Kanchan. In an interview in 2020, Aditya spoke about his mother’s sudden death and how everything unfolded.

Speaking to The Print, he said, “My mother was gone in just 15 days. I had gone on location in rural Punjab where she contracted smallpox… …My mom had picked me up from boarding school and taken me to the location. I spent the whole month with her. Then she fell ill. My father left his own shoot and picked both of us up. Her condition got worse and finally she died. Dad was doing Teesri Manzil at that time.”

After Geeta’s death, Shammi married Neela Devi but the two never had any kids. Aditya said in another interview how Neela filled the void that was left by Geeta’s death in his life.

“It was Neela Devi who made that space for me in our home. She devoted her life to my father, decided not to have any kids of her own because my sister and me were already there. No Hindu woman would do this. From boarding school I used to write threatening letters to my father. I used to tell him that I’d run away from school. I told him he could marry any woman he wanted. But I had to have a mother. Neela Devi filled that gap. She turned me from a wounded, anguished, rebellious, howling animal to a human being. Just goes to show, that a mother makes the family. But I never stopped missing my mother Geeta Bali. My first and second mothers were different people,” he said.

Also read: When Raj Kapoor gave Shammi a ‘firing of his life’ after he worked on tobacco ad with Ashok Kumar: ‘Aren’t you ashamed’

He had added that Shammi, being the busy Bollywood superstar that he was, was unable to give him the time and attention he needed. “Those were not easy years for me. Mom was gone. Dad had become so successful he had no time for me. Superstars today have organised lives. In my father’s time fans had no access to him through Internet, television or magazines. They’d barge into our home at any time. I was left with no space that I could call my own with my father.”

Aditya has appeared in films such as Diwangi Ne Had Kar Di (2010), Isi Life Mein (2010), Say Yes to Love (2012) and Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (2011) but did not find much success as an actor.