No one can replace my mother: Juhi Chawla

Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and it’s an emotional time for Juhi Chawla. The actress, who lost her mother in an accident around two decades ago, urges everyone to not take their mothers for granted.

“I really admired my mother; I wanted to be like her,” reminisces Juhi. “She was a working woman, and I loved what she was doing. A working mum, she used to work for five days a week. Being a single mother, she did the best she could for my brother’s and my education.”

Juhi’s mother, Mona Kapoor, passed away in a car accident in Prague in 1998, when the actress was shooting for Duplicate with Shah Rukh Khan. “I lost her pretty early in life,” rues Juhi. “I just never expected anything to happen to her. You tend to take your mum for granted, and you think that she’s going to be here all your life. Her passing away just shook my entire world.”

The 49-year-old adds, “After that, I learned and say this to everybody, that nobody can replace your mom. So, please don’t take her for granted.”

Juhi, who is herself a mother of two kids, says it took her a while to cope up with this phase. “I started going to work and trying to forget what had happened,” she says. “I used to believe that nothing has happened and she’s just gone out shopping. I thought that she’d come back, and this was all a bad dream. I would just hate to be left alone, but it took me a while to get over it.”