Shweta Tiwari interview: When Pregnant, Raja hit me for the first time

It's said that you don't allow Raja to meet Palak?

Gosh. You are straight to the point. To tell you the truth, I do let him meet her. If he comes to his senses, I have no problem. But every time, he comes sloshed at 3 am. He abuses, breaks things around. He is not in a proper state of mind. Palak is scared of him and doesn't want to meet him. You tell me, what should I do (shrugs and pauses).

Go on…

Raja used to cry and give sob stories to the police. They never believed me. Record karke lao, they said. One day, I recorded his violent and abusive behaviour at my house and only after that, they sent the cops.


Rewind. How did your fairytale romance with Raja turn to a nightmare?

We married after just three months of knowing each other. It was a mistake. We hardly knew anything about each other.

My family was against him. But I was 19 and stupid. After a few days, I found him drinking heavily. He blamed it on his social circle.

Soon after, I found myself pregnant. I went to my in-laws in Meerut. His sister Shalu was getting married. While I was away, I heard that he was getting too close to junior artistes and small time models.

He joined me there, and started cuddling up to Shalu's friend at the wedding itself. I took him to the terrace and questioned him about it. He slapped me so hard that I almost fell down.

Back home, he started having affairs Mala, Sona, Mukerji... God knows kitni thi! One of them even called me and threatened to throw acid on me if I didn't leave Raja. Palak started getting sick and I sent her off to my in-laws.

Raja didn't improve. I tried another trick. I called Palak back, thinking, 'kuch toh sharam aayegi is aadmi ko' but to no avail. Roz peeke aata, maarna peetna chalta raha, I still put it up thinking that something will change him. Lekin kuch nahin hua.

And that led to the breaking point?

Not really. Like a fool, I was still going on with him. But June 2007, I saw him cozying up with an actress who is now married. They were doing a play together and he told me

"Shweta, this is it, you are jealous. I love this girl. If u want to stay, you leave and this is how it will remain." And (sighs) I walked out of the house taking Palak with me. I went to my mom's place.

Please continue…

Kitna tolerate kiya tha. He burnt my wrists with cigarettes. He picked up and threw me against the walls. He used to physically and verbally abuse me in front of my parents.

He withdrew money from our joint account and gifted expensive jewellery to his girlfriends. No ornaments came to me. Surely, he wasn't wearing them either.

He was admitted to Maseena for drug and alcohol abuse.

As if I don't know. Nobody knows that I only got him admitted there. Aage aage ambulance chal rahi thi, peeche meri gaadi. Police said iska dimag kharab ho gaya hai, isko drugs chad gayi hai. They were sending him out of the city. I went and met a cop and got the entire hospitalisation done.

When did his drug abuse problem start?

I think it was there since long. He used to smoke some strange stuff and say, 'These are my herbal cigarettes'.

You have filed for divorce. Why is it not coming through?

He wants one of our flats. This profession is unpredictable. What if I need this property for Palak and myself? Both houses are in joint names. I am the first owner as I am the only payer. How can I give him one house? He will sell it and continue his masti. So there is a property dispute.

More?

Recently he even threatened Palak saying, 'Ek saal tu aur badi ho jaa. Tujhe jaan se maar dunga.' I have one bodyguard for her. I have another bodyguard who is constantly guarding my house.

You know what, he had reached a stage where he even started hurting himself with cigarettes, he even broke plates on his head.

He chased me to my shoot. Ekta Kapoor and her mom, Shobhaji have waited up to twelve hours for me if I couldn't make it to the shoot due to Raja's unpredictable behaviour. I used to go there with marks on my face and the makeup man used to patch them up.

Trials and tribulations of a single parent?

None. I was always a single parent.

Now you have Abhinav Kohli in your life?

(Smiles at last) Yes. I met him during a serial we did together. We were simply friends. Slowly, he and my family became very close to each other. I didn't know that he loved me almost from the beginning. Slowly, main bhi… (smiles again)

What next?

We want to get married. I am just going with the flow. Maine sochna chhod diya hai.