Mumbai, Feb 19 (IANS): Popular TV actor Karanvir Bohra and his wife, digital content creator Teejay Sidhu, are receiving a lot of love for the short film they made titled 'My Pink Shoes', marking the acting debut of their five-year-old twin daughters Bella and Vienna.
In conversation with IANS, the celebrity couple open up on making films with their children and the biggest challenges of modern-day parenting.
The story of 'My Pink Shoes' revolves around a little girl who asked for a pair of pink shoes on her birthday as a gift but eventually what she does with the gift left her mother surprised.
The film was released on February 14 on YouTube and ever since the film was released, the couple is receiving a lot of positive feedback on how adorable their children look on-screen.
Asked about if as parents they are taking it as a sign of their children becoming actors in the future, Teejay told IANS: "Well, this could be a sign because they are very comfortable in front of the camera and whenever we play pretend games, they act very well. At times they play police-police, doctor-patient and other small games where both my daughters react as if they are really acting!
"Theoretically, they do not know they are acting but they are doing it all in fun and games. And yes, they are very expressive. But both my daughters are also equally interested in painting, art-craft etc. So as parents we are just exposing them to all things colourful."
Adding to that, Karanvir said, "Yes I think as parents we should just open the doors so that they can play with their imagination and find their voice. We will not instruct them to become someone, be it an actor, painter, dancer...anything. When we were young we also used to try out everything and eventually we felt 'ye main kar sakta hoon.' That's the inner voice they should find instead of us telling them."
Being the parents of three children, as Teejay delivered another baby girl Gia in December 2020, the couple shared how in the pandemic and digital era where the screen time for everybody has increased, parenting has got its new set of challenges.
"But more than challenges I would like to say, we should stop looking at children and parenthood as a burden and end of our freedom. Children adjust to everything. We have to have our personal, professional lives as well as happy times with children. So, there is no 'right time' to have children, have them and grow with them, parenthood never stops your ambition," said Teejay who is a travel vlogger and former VJ.
However, Karanvir believes that sharing responsibility without making each other feel guilty is very important.
"I think that typical mindset of fathers can't be the caregiver and mothers cannot be the provider financially should be stopped. I think that is why when a father takes care of a child when the mother is out, we give extra credit to the father. Do we do that to the mother and say 'thank you for taking care of my kids', no we don't," said Karanvir.
He went on adding, "As adults, we also tend to spend a lot of time on social media because we are addicted to that. That is how we are making our children get addicted to screen. Unless we change ourselves, we cannot expect children to do the same. I and Teejay do a lot of art, craft painting with our daughters and they bring along their friends too...away from cellphones."