It was a happy coincidence for actor Adil Hussain when he got the chance to play Janhvi Kapoor’s father in Ulj. He had earlier worked with her mother Sridevi in ​​English Vinglish, where he played the late actress’ husband. In an exclusive conversation with India Today, Adil recalled meeting Janhvi as a teenager on the sets of the 2012 film directed by Gauri Shinde. He also made a reference to the mother-daughter bond and praised his young co-star for her hard work.

Talking about sharing screen space with Janhvi, the actor said, “I have seen some of her work, and she has the ease of an actor. She has grown up in a household where her father is a producer, mother was the only female superstar, and her uncle is Anil Kapoor. When you are in such an environment, you are relaxed. I come from a small town, and I had to deal with my personal hurdle of mingling with another class and society. For actors like her, they are not walking into an alien situation, and they are also used to cameras and are familiar with their existence being celebrated.”

He said, “Janhvi, knowing her strengths, works very hard on her work. And that is the quality of an artist. It is not easy to stick to your goal and be so dedicated. What matters is your attitude and she has proved that. And I saw that in the time we spent together.”

In the same interview, Adil also talked about sharing screen space with Janhvi’s mother and late star Sridevi. He said, “I remember meeting her (Janhvi) very well when I was on the sets of English Vinglish. She would come and Sridevi would go and sit next to her during the break. I greeted her, but since I knew Sridevi little, I didn’t go and sit next to her. I didn’t want to spoil the mother-daughter time.”

The actor then shared that it was nostalgic and heartwarming when they came together for Ulj. However, he admitted that he never spoke about Sridevi: “She (Janhvi) has gone through this huge tragedy. As an audience, if we felt so sad at the demise of Shree ji, we can’t even imagine what Janhvi and the family must have gone through. I never had the courage to talk about her in our conversations. But I must add that Janhvi has imbibed a lot of Shree ji’s qualities, be it in her outlook or attitude,” signed off Adil Hussain.

Gulshan Devaiah and Roshan Mathew starrer ‘Uljhan’ will release in theatres on August 2.