Success, Spirituality & Staying Real | Shilpa Shetty Kundra x Shekhar Natarajan

like how a human thinks. So can I bring the soul of a human the heart of a human into the intelligence?

“When I'm not being watched, when I'm not being judged, I think there is a quieter”

sight to me. Poverty was my origin story, it was not my destination. It's the many nose that have made me, it's not the essence. She treated her life for my education, this like my mom did. You didn't bend me, you can't break me.

(Music) Ladies and gentlemen, today's guest represents evolution in its true essence.

“She's not just a star who conquered cinema, but a woman who continuously reinvented”

herself across decades, industries and generations. From becoming one of Bollywood's most celebrated actors, to emerging as a global voice for wellness, mindfulness, and conscious living. She has transformed fame into purpose, an entrepreneur who built successful ventures beyond entertainment, a fitness icon who inspired millions to prioritize health, a style symbol known for

elegance, and confidence, and a mother who speaks openly about balance, resilience, and growth. Her journey reflects discipline, reinvention, and the courage to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world. In an era driven by technology, influence, and personal branding,

she stands as a powerful example of how authenticity can become once greater strength.

Please join me in welcoming an icon who continues to redefine success, inspired generation, and lead with grace and determination. It's none other than Shilpa Shetty Kundra. Welcome to another episode of tomorrow today with Shakerna Trajan. I'm very, very excited about this episode, because my life has been a series of accidents, and I've been surrounded

with one common theme, strong women, Charonvi, very strong women, beat my grandmother, beat my mother, beat my wife, and I'm very excited to have someone I have deep admiration for, because she's played, played in a versatile role in her life. Please welcome Shilpa Shetty onto the show, and we're going to have a lot of ground to cover Shilpa. I'm excited to have you here, and let's have some fun.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Absolutely.

So you've been famous since age 20s, and I'm guessing, right? 17. 17. 17. And basically,

like a lot of people know you wearing different hats, whose real Shilpa Shetty for the audience.

“I think the one that they're being money to see has to ratify them, and that's what”

that's the persona I think that they remember me as, because I don't a lot of TV as well. I've done YouTube, I've done radio. So through these mediums, you get to see the real me, that's a very bubbly, very happy, very positive person. But in my alone time, when I'm not, when I'm not being watched, when I'm not being judged, I think there is a, there is a quieter sight to me. That is a facet that I'm sure people wouldn't want to pay for.

So I played the gallery, and I'm deeply spiritual. So yeah, I guess that's a side that people don't see too much. Same all about that. I'm honestly quite a home bird. So the time that I get, I prefer to spend it learning something new, doing the stuff that I

interesting content, which I had very little time to do, taking on my search.

Yeah, a little joys. But yeah, I just, I just like to switch off sometimes, because you know you're constantly otherwise, when you're playing the actor, the celebrity, the speaker, the business woman, all the different facets that I have to my personality, the more the wife, the daughter, the sister,

“you have to cater to everyone's needs. And that leaves you with very little time to cater to”

yourself and to listen to yourself in your soul. So that is mine. And I want to nurture,

I want to understand, I want to see reason from why I'm born my purpose in life. So I'm still learning, discovering. And so how spirituality helps you through that process? Every person's understanding of spirituality is different. And when I say I'm deeply spiritual, it doesn't mean that I'm also very religious, but for me, the connotation of Dharma is to do the right thing. I follow my Dharma, and that is to do the right thing. And that

I think with that alone, my spiritual journey has seen evolution, it's changed me as a person may be very, very patient. I think you would be in tend to want results quicker. But my Guru says,

“"I'm a huge Simon and the bedrock of his preachings and his teachings are that you must have”

Shadda and Saburi, which means faith in patience." And I think that understanding has come more time. So you just say it, you know, you're a Simon, you have faith and you have patience, but there are times when you're like questioning God and like, "How much more time?" Well, I have faith, but that's not faith, right? So science says that faith and patience have to be unconditioned. And when you have faith, patience means that you must, you must, it's how you behave

in the time when you don't even have those answers. How you behave in that time. And faith is to know that whatever is happening or is to happen is going to be for your bedrock good. So if you have that understanding, that's the kind of spirituality that I practice.

“So like, this is exactly the reason why I like you a lot, because I think”

your sense of confidence, your sense of understanding of the world in general and how strong you are as a person is like deeply endearing, because those are the very attributes like I grow up around.

What an amazing journey you have had as well, a life of struggle, I was going through

all your accolades, amazing how many, some 307 odd patents after going through so many hardships in your life and studying under a street lamp, I believe so. And how do these stories, you know, my mother also came from very humble beginnings and she used to tell me that, you know, while the whole house left, she would go under the table and she would study. She was a very, very bright student and then obviously she had to at a very young age start earning. So she started doing at the age of

13 or 14, she started doing tutions and stitching people's clothes. So I kind of understand and we came from very humble beginnings as well. So I kind of resonate with that hunger in your belly

your journey. See amazing, after on the table. Yeah, thank you so much. See, I think

“to your point, like everyone has a purpose when they come to this world and I don't, I don't”

basically think about my journey any different than most of the middle families in India. Probably I was a little bit more impoverished than others. But poverty was my origin story, it was not my destination. And for me, one of the ingredient of what I became, who I became, is my mother's will and her code. So a lot has been talked about people's journey in life and other things. They rarely talk about the genesis of that, like what was the bedrock of that, you know,

kind of beginning. And my mother, when I was, like my both my brothers went to Jesuit school, you know, and she's not as educated. My father used to deliver telegrams. In those days,

“you deliver telegrams so many two reasons, money or bad news. Going to a house and saying, like,”

you know, someone has passed away or about to pass away or here is your money, right? And he used to cycle 15 kilometers and all that stuff. So when my mother's here, like my third son, like he asked to go to the same school as my two elder brothers, I went and interviewed, he told me that this is a color concept. I told him that this is a blue hair, gray hair. And then they wanted, for like some, you know, it's a Jesuit school. So we were all expecting

that we changed religion to actually go to the school and other things. And she said,

"Hello, I will never do that." And she stood by her, by her conviction. And every day,

for 365 days, she went and stood in front of the head minister's office, not protesting, just standing, just standing. Like, Saudi Adwajay, Mahas Chalotana, like she used to drop my brothers, she used to stand there till 10 30 and she'll just stand there, just stand. And the principal would like, you know, go around and like, you know, he'll find like the shortcut, like, you know, he couldn't ignore her after a while. And after 365 days,

the guy said, like, enough is enough. I will give you your son the admission. Okay? So that's where my life started. And for me, which you mark up, you know, unconditional love. And when we did, we could not pay, she took off her wedding ring, you know, like, you know, parents, she took the off, she sold it, so I could have education, go and do it. Pajjan may, sublocal, like they feel like tired, you know, even modern day mothers don't have patience. My mother had unlimited patience,

unlimited conviction, and super driven. Perseverance Yothana, Yothana, that conviction she had was amazing. And every time there was a low movement in my life, I used to remain, you know, remind myself of my mother. I don't want to let my mother down. And so that was the real sort of the catalyst of the escape velocity. So not to let my mother down, not to let my family down, not to

let the expectation of my family down. And it was never about Kipasa Bhanalya, Ekar Gia, Okar Gia,

“Yasa Gia Yothana. So that I think that everyone has a different story of what drives them, and, you”

know, my story was that. So, and I grew up in the second biggest slum in India, proud to say that, but I work for a lot of, oh yeah, it's amazing. So now let's actually talk about, like, the many hats you wore in your life, right? You have sort of reintroduced yourself to the world in many different forms. First, as an actor, then basically, as an entrepreneur, a wellness I can, a mother, right? So these are very different form factors in life. So how do you go about

reinventing yourself? And what is the real real you in all of these? Are you a businessman? Are

you a fitness fee? Are you a mother? Or which is more which is less? It really mentioned. It was never

really contrived. It was much booty. So I will look at the fittest. So, when I felt like,

didn't consider myself to be, you know, the quintessential good-looking actor. And you know, I was really

“is that right? No, I'm not. I have personality. I'm not, can mentionly good-looking.”

I'm, I mean, I mean, I mean, we stop recording. You know, there is very subjective. So sometimes the most beautiful people look so ugly. If they're not good people, you know what I mean? So maybe you think that I'm beautiful because maybe you like me as a person. And maybe you have the ability to recognize my soul, which goes beyond beauty. So I'll take that as a compliment.

But I just feel that I just lived in the moment. And for me, I just did stuff that I felt

instinctively drawn to. And I just went with my gut. So whether it was, you know, wanting to make my own yoga DVD back in the day after winning big brother. And nobody wanted to do reality at that time. I was shooting for a plane and a life in a metro. And I literally told them, I said, you know, it's a great opportunity. Let me do it. And I thought, I will, you know, I won't last for so long. It was just a 20-day

stint. And I thought, and maybe get out of the show in like 57 days, it's a very milder. And before we got into the show, they asked us, would you want to pledge the winning money to the winning price to an item? I said, you thought you had to give me the money.

“Me, they don't give to maybe, you know, an AIDS foundation or something. And I remember,”

but make sure go through it. God bless the soul. It was actively working in that direction. And I done a little amount of work with her, and I just finished with a film called Firmillenge, where, you know, the protagonist suffered with HIV. So I felt very strongly for that cause at that time. And then I just, one in my life just changed overnight. So I just went with what came my way. And when I won that, I got various other opportunities. I also had the opportunity of maybe

shifting base, you know, doing, or very famous TV series in Britain. But I decided against it. Because I was like, you know, I still want to come back home. I have to complete the work that I've taken up here and I do. I feel like a fish out of water. If I went to another place. And most actors don't want to shift base because, sorry, Kami, I'm low in the upper way in terms of norm, Bessar Jobi here. And then you start as a persona grata in a different place. It's

very unsettling. But for me, people knew me by name and face even in the UK. So I should have felt very comfortable making that shift. But I decided against it because my gut didn't allow me to. So I went with the flow and then I met all my husband and I got married. That again was a decision I took. And then I slowly slowly decided on doing different things for myself. I said,

“you know, now is when I want to start a family, give that priority. And as an actor, your life is”

very erratic. You know, you're working for a producer. You have to obviously, I'm a professional and my work ethics, you know, are the benchmarks very hard. These guys were telling me like, don't run over on the other one because you're going to run into time limits here because she's going to come on time and she's going to leave on time. So if I commit to something, I will have to deliver, you know, come hail or storm. So I just went with what I resonated with, what was synonymous

with my personality and my philosophies. I could never endorse anything that I don't believe in.

And even when I was younger and I couldn't afford it, that was where I came from. So today I've become this brand that I have become, it's the many nodes that have made me. It's not the essence. So yeah, so from there I decided, you know, let me take yoga forward and we need to

and they said that you know, you should come out of the DVD and back in the day that was the

“culture you did. If you become famous, if you become a celebrity, you come out of the perfume,”

you do your own thing and there's a lot of avenues that really open up. So I decided to go down that route and I continued because I believed in it. I walk all the talk. So for me, it's not just saying K.K. Karore, make a look at real. So the whole branding with yoga and wellness happened quite naturally. And then I decided during COVID and a little before that, I said, how do I make myself

of some use to people, you know. And there's always this preconceived notion about food that

if it's not made in a certain way, it's not going to be tasty. So healthy food is already looked at

“with a lot of doubt. So I wanted to debunk that myth which is why YouTube happened and I”

started it like way before YouTube even came into play and everybody's making money now. I had three and a half million followers then. I was only putting money into it. I wished I continued. But now I don't have that much time. And then I decided on the app, the simple foldful app which again was quite a hole in my pocket because I was only putting money. Everyone started working,

working out online because of COVID. So I had a lot of first mover advantages. So I did it

because I believed in it. I wanted people to eat healthy and I wanted people to live with awareness and to live mindfully eat mindfully practice yoga was was the way I thought I could play a catalyst and you know, introduce to people all in this lifetime of mine and I just went with that. So yeah. So free will like seeing the world before everyone else saw and like a little bit of like serendipity in life. Yeah. I mean it is a little serendipity just

if I may call it so. But we think that we are doing it. Someone else is doing it on and we have. It is already planned. Yes. That's absolutely good. So I have this theory about like angels in my life. People ask me like how do you define because like I'm building something called

“angelic intelligence. What is that? Well, it's exciting. So I believe that there are three types of”

problems that we all face as humans. One is like purely efficiency based. And it is the mark we could learn on an efficiency. It takes over the world like paying an invoice writing a few or other things. But like the remaining two decisions that we as individuals make or company makes in rather contextual which is like negotiations like on donor bed. I can see a issue pay like

you know, we are trying to decide or something which is morality based. I see that basically like

you know this person has a break in the carry or should I hire that person or morality. Someone is seeing beyond what you see. Right. In those kinds of the scenarios that you are trying to solve a problem, artificial intelligence cannot solve like how a human thinks. So can I bring the soul of a human the heart of a human into the intelligence like the angels who showed in my life. They saw something that I couldn't see. Can I replicate that because my son is like a zerox copy

of my father. My father was a very kind man. So Karma was a boomerang in my life. He came from everywhere. Ben Bonayau. Oh, my man. Oh, I mean, there was a P. And they all showed me a path. And I am where I am today. So I wanted to create something for my son that is something my father left me. But I wanted to do it in a way that amplifies what my father left me. Because you have a multigeneration. And so I wanted to build a technology and that's what I am

would humans do. So it'll be based on empathy and compassion and motion. It's my own actions.

“Very, very much. That's what we lack actually in today's era. Exactly. And we'll touch on that”

topic a little bit like when we get there. But there's a lot of fundamental flaws in terms of how AI

was designed. It was never designed to think about you said you have a 14 year old about like a

30 year old. Your son, 15 years, 16 years from now. We are not designing with that in mind. We're designing for the 14 year old will consume 14 years. So it's like it's all shock term. It's all like, you know, what the present problem is. Because that's the data that they're getting there. The ones who are using it the most. Yeah. So projecting yourself and seeing the world from that point and seeing how do I design something that is not being done today. So like,

you know, so I'm trying to flip that story a little bit. So now coming to this very fascinating

“question, you know, like, because like everyone's life is very glittery from outside. Like everyone”

thinks how you arrive, like, you know, like what is wrong with you? Like, it's up to you. But when you show up there at that professional person, and it's up to you. In all of that situation, how do you even have the courage to rebuild yourself? What do you do? You've gone through like a lot of highs and lows professionally and personally and to come out of all of that and every time project

yourself the way you did, it's fascinating. Like, I'm not trying to, like, you know, you know,

sugarcoat or whatever it is. I really admire it. That's why I wanted to sit and talk to you. To understand like your psyche, how do you go about it? It's like, you know, a lot of that is a painful process. Well, you rebuild when you think something is broken,

“I'm never broken. So there's never been any need to rebuild. You have to reproject.”

So that's that's my perspective on it. Yes, you can bend me. You can't break me. So that's, I think that comes from a sense of deep faith and also with the philosophy of whatever happens happens to the best. And it was a small paper cutting that I, I had when I was 16, I don't know where I saw it and I remember cutting out that piece and sticking it outside my dough. So I'd see it every day. And since then, it's just embedded in my subconscious, that Jo Mancha

was a chah. Now, who will say be a chah? Beautiful. Yeah, and so on my line is three, I even should have a chance. I'm a living example of how one can actually manifest what one really, really wants and not just wanting it because you want it, because you really want it, because you want to make a difference. And then that requires a whole lot of effort, consistency, discipline, sacrifice, sacrifices. And yeah, that's how you, you kind of reinvent and sometimes you, you know,

who wants to be the same person. So when you say, you know, rebuild, it's a great exercise, maybe you're not broken, but it's sometimes important to walk away from a structure and look at it, you know, pragmatically and say, is this working in this time? Should we, we change the way this is? Now, you make a maximum of facts. Totally, but you have to move with time, times. And then there are sometimes question, "Mutron doesn't work for you and you still want the switch."

Right? So horses for courses. You have to decide what works for you in that time. And then take a decision. So that's how I have worked. And that's how I deal after being in the industry, I think, rather than the limelight for the last 32 years.

all reinvent, do different things. And this decade has been, and I don't know, and

emergence of a different kind of me in terms of the entrepreneur have become from a brand to an entrepreneur and me foreign into the hospitality space with bastion. And for me, that was all, was different. But I'm doing it with a lot of passion and I've agreed to partner that

“I've invested in. So yeah, you have to keep moving with time.”

So what has the industry given you? And what is a cost of what it gave you? It's given me my identity. I have so much gratitude for that. The love of people. What come or look to nature to become famous? And to be loved. I must have done something good in my life. It's my parents blessings. And I feel very fortunate to be in the position that I am in today. But I think you can't sit in, then be dishing what you shouldn't be grateful for.

Because they're all these pros and cons. But the pros are far bigger than the cons. So I look at it like that. Maybe. But what is a con? For people who only see the the image that people project, right? Obviously there's a lot of, there's a lot of, like, you're under like,

image scrutiny and like, you know, people are like always talking about you. And there's no privacy.

“You know, shaker, I'm someone who takes things in my stride. I think I'm old enough to kind of”

deal with also making mistakes in the open because once your famous, you're not allowed to make mistakes. So you're not forgiven easily for your mistakes. But I feel the one who will face the brunt of that will be my kids. Because when we were growing up, we made a lot of mistakes. And that's me as the people that we've become, right? But when you are children of famous people, there's an added pressure on them. And I think that is a big con for me. It's not for me,

but my kids. So while they're growing up, they won't be able to enjoy the luxury of making mistakes. Because that was a luxury for me. Wow, interesting, interesting, interesting. But people don't think about it. Like they all think, you know, it's like, you are like, yeah, I mean, I'm a little busy with the world. So we are able to deal with, you know, things comes with, there's a flip side to it. But the kids understand that. My son's still very young.

But I'm somewhere teaching him how to deal with it, you know. And there's also, it's very different. And there's also a lot of expectation of them, right? Like such intent will occur, like, you know, he's saying, yeah. It was soul. It's trying to find himself and not allow to make any mistakes, till he decides, is this going to work for him or not?

He's not going to ace it in the first round. It's unfair to even expect that.

You know, from from our children. Yeah. So whatever he chooses to do, or my daughter chooses to do, I really hope that they find satisfaction, because satisfaction for me is the true definition of success. What are those things is, you know, success because they put numbers to it and all of that. There's some, you know, there are people who do so well in life and they're not satisfied.

“Neither they're happy. Thank you for me. Success is defined by true satisfaction.”

So now tell me, I want you to be honest with me. So what do you mean? I'm only being honest.

why I'm asking you this question. You know, I know that you're going to get an honest answer.

“But like, I think I got to ask you this question. So early in your life, you're always in this theater.”

Like you're performing. Like, you know, like, you're in the PPP is more, like, you know, you're director for Chalakya, so you could use your coach for Chalakya. Yeah, actor for Chalakya. You stop, like, at some point in time and I went through this in my life. I know that you're like, title, what is it? Choro's go like, what's happening? Or get it, like, throat or sight. We're liberating. And then we go from like theater to actually like, you know, that validation,

which we seek to vision following the vision. So when did that happen to you?

Did it happen to you or when did it happen to you? That shift happened. Why did that happen to you? Our culture. I'm taking the card branch to even what you in the same but our culture was middle class. What is it? Which is also, we're all self-made, right? So we value what we have made.

And we constantly feel that you know, you know, you see,

“wrong move or go, so what will we fall back on to Orbana or Bana or Bana?”

Safe card, right? Pirek, then you reach a point where you're like, okay, you know what? Now I'm not going to compromise. I'm not going to be undervalued. When you reach that state where you do not want to be undervalued. In someone assigning a value on you. Yes, that's when the flip happens. That's when you gather the gum. She didn't you say, no, now I don't want to do this.

Because now I'm going to do it on my terms. Because it's a risk I can take. Yeah, and I said you want to get to the place of security before you. Yeah. Very good. So if there is a young aspiring actress who's starting her life, what is that one lesson you would tell them that you want them to know so that they're going to be another Shilpa Shetty, who reinvents herself like 15 times?

Darling, a lot of people want to walk in my shoes, the lepitalu. It ain't going to be an easy walk. The heels are too high. Now first and foremost, I don't think I would ever, ever advise someone to want to emulate or try and be someone else. I tell my kids this all the time. Don't try to be like someone else.

“Be someone other people will want to be like. So I think you have to go with your gut.”

And if you love what you are doing, keep consistently doing it with discipline and be kind in any situation. Kindness goes a long way. I may have been a mediocre actor. And I say this myself because I'm sure there are hundreds in brilliant actors that we

have in the industry. But I always got work. And I got work because I think people saw the hard work.

I would deliver and I'd show up whatever be the circumstance. If I was unwell, I remember I was I got burnt by an HMI light in a shot on my back. The shot was where I'd get out of frame and there was a little baby light at the back. And I slept on it. And you know when you get burnt, you don't realize it that very second, only jump. Jalla should open that you realize. And I got up and I was like, Chaka laga. And then they said, "Oh, you really, really, you know,

jelly jelly jelly." And I still showed up the next day and I was supposed to wear this outfit and I couldn't wear it because I was badly burnt. But I wore just the front and I made them stitch it, like put a thread on it so that we didn't have to zip it. So I've worked so hard in my life that Kisi Dhusrega looks on me. So I just feel that if you have that kind of work ethic,

or any other milieu that I chose to work in, I've always worked like that. I'll always think

about the other person, you know, the people that I'm working with, is it going to make that person profit? Is it going to be, you know, a lucrative venture for me to leverage my name to, so I always think my mindset is very different or has been very different. So yeah, I just put in that effort,

“do it with heart, be kind and the rest you have to leave to God. Whatever is destined to happen is”

going to happen, yeah. Yeah. So talking about like business building, right? Like, you went from

being a star to building businesses and thinking like an entrepreneur is very different and thinking

like a star, right? Like one you're, you know, you're, you're leveraging your brand, you know, so to say, but like an entrepreneur, but business may, a couple of other different mentality of the business company can make it. So how did you, how, like, how do you kind of plan for that? How do you go about it? Like, like, there's so many people who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs today, what advice do you have for them? I don't even know how I'm, yeah, business man, or a business

man, come on. I didn't, I didn't can drive this, because you're honest, it just happened. I, yeah,

people that need how was someone, yeah, you know, Shilpa Shetty has the acumen and she's this business woman and look at her and you know, maybe just tell you, um, I had no idea. My, my father was a small, small time entrepreneur, um, we manufactured, will for proof caps from medicine bodies. I was learning commerce, studying commerce that I hated. I had no idea why I was learning economics, learning cosine, cosine, trig documentary. I came back home one day, frustrated, I asked my dad,

I said, where am I ever going to use this? I was frustrated. I hated math. And then I went to the factory, um, like I said, we should make will for proof for, you know, caps from medicine bottles, so wedding, machine, no, that the, oh, bags, dal, kithi, and then that little sponge that you go into the cap bottle caps. So I went and I sat on his chair, he said, get up, go where all the

“girls are sitting, these who manually put all the cap, the bags. He said, you have to start from here.”

So at that time I decided, I said, business, so I said, I don't need anything, I don't know, I'm going to be back. So, see, but God had a different plan. And then I became an actor, that again, was literally just by chance, after you know the tenth grade, you get you wait for your results, it's a long wait. And my neighbor was a photographer. He saw me, he was like, you know, you have a very photogenic face. Can I shoot you? I did have to pay for it. He called a makeup artist and he was

testing some lights and he shot some photos. The makeup artist gave my photograph to agencies, that's where I got discovered by this suit was all planned. How can you plan this? How can you think that I, you know, I have thought about becoming into, you know, becoming an actor and I have

“achieved all this on my own. There, there are no coincidences in life. It's all planned. So you have to”

just go with the flow. So I was meant to go through this journey and then become the person I am and become an entrepreneur. I think I started my twist with the, with the investment, started with the Mamma Earth, where they came to me and wanted me as a brand ambassador, but they couldn't afford me. And when Barron and Gazzal came to me with all their products, I think I said yes to them, not as she'll partially take the celebrity, as she'll partially

the mom because I just had my son who was too. And I was constantly looking for products that could suit his skin. See, I could afford to travel and buy those products. I would come back with

shampoo, so you know, I'm not, I'm not. Costumes are a big now, I think. Let's make your costumes.

I don't have my own clothes, I don't have any clothes, I don't have any clothes, I don't have any clothes, I don't have any clothes. So my problems were all gone. I was like, this is crazy, why can't we have products? And then the products at that time that was selling work filled with parabens and they were for kids, you know, they were not safe. So why couldn't we, we have non-toxic products, hypoallergenic products and they came up with this great idea. And I said, okay, you can't afford it, season will give you sweat.

“And I jumped on the offer, but who's time may, I think it must have been one of the first brand deals”

I lucked out on, you know, who knows, how many companies really become of unicorns? So the plan, I think the intention was good, so like, my brother's mentor, like, you know, this guy is a Pakistani,

Giovanni Sharfe, Kanam, and he used to always say, near Negatamanzil asanae.

So like, you know, always like, set your intention and the intention should never be you. Absolutely, I totally agree with you. So I would always invest and even now when I invest, I don't just invest in the product, I invest in the people that have that vision for the product and the intent with which they have made the product. So for me, that matters, you know, because your product is a good one, but what is your vision? What is the end goal? What will you do?

What will you do? What will you do? What will you do? What will you do? What will you do? But you can really, in this picture, you can get a release, you know, what will you do?

“What will you do? What will you do? You have to have knowledge, you know, so I don't have that.”

I have what works for me in my favor is my instinct and my gut feeling and I just go with that. You know, like it probably is because of what you said in the beginning. I'm not trying to philosophize here, but I think like, you know, you said like, you want to connect with the universe and when you connect with the universe and your intentions are right, yeah, things manifest, so and like results follow. So a lot of people talk about

women's empowerment in general, right? Like, you know, there's a lot of slogan about women's in power, minority from the world. So, but you are a living proof of creating products and not slogans.

So how do you go about that? What does it mean to you? The first place, you know, I do

“I believe that strong women make strong government. So when I see a woman in any field doing well,”

I reach out to them. I really wish we are able to become a community and community building really is a very important aspect. We have to ask ourselves questions like, are we building or an empowering space for women? Is it a safer working space for women? Are we giving women more opportunities, you know, pay parity? So empowerment is, it's not just a hashtag, it's an infrastructure and it has to be built. And I think today there's a gallery in

world that we're living in. I look at it like that while there is a dichotomy as well. Because the metros you see women are treated and looked upon very differently. The mindset is very different and you go into the interiors, the two tires again. It's very different. So you have an India where there are different mindsets, different kind of women. But the one thing that is a constant in women across India is they are able to multitask. And they're conditioning is such

that they grow up to become multifaceted because they're taught. It doesn't matter if you're from the metro and you're a working woman or you are from the interiors, from the back of beyond of some place in India, they know, they know they will come and eat, they will eat,

Babas, but Jiayko, Garleki, that's the strength of a woman. Asian women are built very differently, you know. So it's our conditioning, I think, and our mindset that me cause empowered.

“But in the, you know, I still see this society, right? Like, you know, women rarely get the recognition of the sacrifices they have made, right?”

I, my grandmother, was a video at age 13. It was at age 13, and I, you know, and she never was married after that, like, you know, she, she's my mother's father's sister, and she lived with us, right, all her lives. And for the longest time, because she used to be the person who used to come, grabbed me from the school, and walked me back home, and wore a stem of a bun, and we were like, "Oh, I'm not hungry, I'm hungry." And she was like, "You know, that was my breakfast for the evening, and, like, you know, in late, late, in a week of week of week." So, and I remember, like, 95 on my, on my birthday, you know, she had a stroke, and so she refused to take treatment, because in our, in our family,

the training for education, was the training for health, was like something we always had to do, that what is more important.

And so she traded her life for my education, just like my mom did. And when I think about, like, success and all that bullshit that people talk about, like, you know, like, if you go to a Google, my name is Dalogue. So, I'm really talking about it, but it's not about what it is about, so this is the mother's love, which is basically a band, which is a conditional, which is a support, which is a game, which is a fiction, and it's not about it.

“And like, you know, we, as men always take women for granted, is my general assumption. Even my wife will tell me about it. He'll say, like, you know, she's watching this, you have to hypocrite here,”

because sometimes even I forget how to recognize, like, what she's doing for me, you know, so we haven't transcended as a society, I still feel, to, like, understand what you just said.

So very profound thought key, women always are multifaceted, they're always like caregiving, they're always like, you know, focus about the family.

They put everyone, everything about and beyond, you know, they're, they're personal identity, comfort everything. I never heard like someone like do the opposite, like rarely the case, you know, normally it doesn't matter. It depends on the upbringing, where you've come from. You know, all that stuff. So, you know, but, you know, I still feel like, you know, I hear so many stories about child abductions, rape, like, you know, kids being burnt alive for marriage, for like the way they, like, you know, we have progressed economically, but we haven't progressed intellectually as a society, you know? So, is that, is that like, am I just like hallucinating or am I like, am I real here?

And I want you to be honest, because one of the things you said, you know, you don't care about anyone anymore. I think sometimes, when you're in a position where people take you seriously, it comes, you know, great position comes with great responsibility. So, I don't want to say something that will just make headlines and there's no use of that line.

“So, I don't make loaded statements only because you have to think before you speak.”

But coming back to your question, like I said, and I reiterate, there will always be different mindsets. There will always be different kinds of people.

So, you really have to choose what kind of woman you want to be and what works for you. It's very easy for me to say that you know, Jajilo, upnes in the E, and Jasibran. Yes, they're geniuses.

And one find is she decides to go and you know, live her life the way she wants to for those five days. But like I said, everyone doesn't have the luxury to be able to switch off from their life.

“You know, when you give birth to a child that comes with the responsibility. When you make a commitment, whether it be in a personal capacity with your husband or at your workplace, it's a commitment that you have to, you know,”

there has to have some consistency, some constants, right. So everything has to be looked at and weighed and thought about. So whatever works for women out there in their capacity, but yes, I can only say this much.

If someone disrespects you in terms of putting you down constantly, whether it be at your home, your workspace, it is becoming a pattern, it's time to wake up and break it.

Because still you do not learn from that pattern, it will keep getting repeated and that's God's way of teaching you to become stronger. The day you are able to break that pattern and value yourself to be able to say no, I will not take it. Only then will your next phase start. So to all those women out there who are facing any kind of disrespect or abuse, it's time to empower yourselves and it's time to be that stronger person, me the new you and trust me when I tell you this. It's only happening for the best and believe in it. I mean it. Absolutely. And I think like, you know, we as a society like to actually assume that women is needs to be submissive and has to live with it all.

Oh, make sure we to be submissive if that is your choice for whatever reason. Again, it's a choice. You don't have to be. What is sub, we know a lot of women, they are meant to be subservient. I don't understand for what see, but it's easy for me to say that because.

“I'm self reliant because I always believe that you must always do something in life, something to keep your mind active, something.”

You can't only, there always has to be a little bit of plan being.

This is for self preservation, I believe. Okay, it didn't mean that. I remember this line somebody told me that don't bend so much, keep it too tight. That'll break your spine, bend only as much as you can. So, what comes across to me is there are actually like, you know, I've seen I've lived in corporate America for 23 years. I've met 25 years of professional life, like work for large companies, manage very large teams, sometimes 80,000 people, sometimes 20, sometimes 40, and that is nothing in comparison with the population of India.

It's a different scale, USA versus here. So, what people are very complex. So, I've seen two types of people, like one who look very strong and one who are really strong. So, you come across to me as a strong person, like someone who's self aware, like, you know, who has a good sense, you know, who has their own confidence and identity and everything.

“Like, you know who you are, and you feel very much in your skin. So, what's the real, like, how do you actually discover that in your life? What's the process? How do you know?”

You know, it's a very, very fake one. When you look really strong as in like physically, there's physical fitness and then there's mental fitness. So, there are a lot of people who look really strong, but mentally we are mentally maybe not not able to handle certain situations.

So, I don't know, I think it has a lot to do with your mind and how you train it. And being into yoga for many years has taught me to live in awareness.

And breathing is a huge asset in my life to be able to breathe with awareness in awareness or is something that I have been trying to tell people to also follow. And I think, if you're able to live in the moment and be aligned. Once you're aligned physically, mentally, so, fully, everything falls into place. You will have your weak moments, it's a thing that you know, she'll, but doesn't cry. Oh, she's so strong that she, you know, she doesn't crumble. No, I am at days where I have, I've, you know.

“So, there are times where I, I mean, I'm only human, but then you have to gather yourself and you have to, you have to know that that is that moment you have to fully,”

you have to fully embrace that moment. And you have to accept that this is happening to you. And that's where awareness comes into play.

And that's where training of the mind comes into play, which happens with yoga automatically.

“So, most people have this preconceived notion that, you know, yoga has a lot to do with asanas and, you know, contorting your body like a pretzel. You know, yoga is training the mind.”

Yoga is like, it's like so cultural to us, right? Like I go to, like, you know, obviously like I shop like in Costco and other places in U.S.

So, you know, you see like they're selling turmeric, right? Seriously, they're selling turmeric, they're selling turmeric. Yeah, like, and then, in a case, there were yoga, you know, clarified butter, coconut oil, cold press. No way, later, later there's the pudevo, your business. So, you know, don't, don't you feel, you know, a little cheated that someone has to teach us what is our ancient wellness structure. I mean, like I said before, yoga, Ayurveda, mindfulness, I feel so proud to belong to a country like ours. It's such a, you know, deep, cultural resonance, ethos, or when medicine,

is holistic, you know, where strengthening of the mind, the body, the soul can be holistic. So, I just feel like why don't we rely on this, why when it comes to the best, we believe, we tend to believe in those things more than, you know, because why can't you cook in mustard, cachi, ghani, mustard oil, coconut oil, and ghee, I have said this before many times and Madonna has eaten clarified butter on her crisp gluten-free toast. Suddenly, we make up. Oh, let's have ghee.

“It's crazy. You know, I think it's time to reclaim what we have that comes from our country and I've been trying to do this for the last 10 years. So, I'm at it. And I think we as Indians must wake up and smell the ghee.”

Absolutely. Right? Because, see, I think it's also like a little bit of like human, right? In the sense, I know, like, for all the glorious speech I gave, like, you know, I'm also a big time hypocrite. My father used to practice.

Right? So, we actually disregard the things which are closest to us. We are always fascinated by someone else's validation of us.

If we were to speak, we would have to listen to them. But, what would we say? We don't have to listen to them. There are more young, trainers abroad than they are here. There is a lot of action. There is a lot of action. There is a lot of action. There is a lot of action. And, we actually take this video.

“I don't see them. I don't see them. I don't see them. I don't see them. I think Sunny people have woken up to yoga, not just around the world, but even in our own country.”

And a lot of people are staring towards yoga. Because you can see the benefits. I told you it's a single form of exercise, holistic way of curing and alleviating all your problems.

Yoga and Ayurveda as a combination can be lethal. And you just have to believe in it. And we have so many gems like that in our country that have yet to be discovered. And simple remedies that we maybe have forgotten. But I go to all those age-old, you know, way of living life. I really want to tell this generation to start living like how we lived right up to even like as recently as 70 years ago. If you're able to just wake up early, sleep early, eat mindfully, eat and breathe in awareness, have lots of water, eat the quantity that's required.

And eat with gratitude. You see how your life will change. We're not able to do all these things. And yeah, I think, you know, people are having ready-made food. You know, there's so much, you think, Milavat, Oriya, Poshty Khanani Karay. And there's so many compromises and quick fixes that how can you have long-term results with pick, you know, with pick fixes.

“So if you want something to be long-term, you have to practice it also long-term. And it has to have some kind of effort without effort. There is no result.”

So you have to make that effort, be consistent with that effort. You see, Karat Karat, Abhiyah, Jadma, Ovisujan, Rassiri, Aavat, Jawat, Silpur, Padat, Nishan. What does that mean? It's just that it's about consistency. If you do the same thing again and again and again, something as flimsy as a string when you put it on a rock and you move it consistently, it would create a mark even on a rock.

“So if you have to do it consistently and only then will you see results.”

One of the things you touched on was basically like, you know, the number of inventions I was able to create.

So I have a ritual. So every 12 to 14 months, I take three weeks off. Do you learn and use skills? No. I just go to Ayurvedic Center and I completely shut myself off and then I sit and paint in the end. I also paint after that. So basically, I have a ritual like this. It's like like around 2 to 3 days. So I have a ritual like this. So I have a treat. So I have a detox. And I have a lot of things to do. And I enjoy that like 21 days process and then like energy is very good. So I have a lot of time. So I have a lot of time. So I have a lot of time and then I take that time and then like you know, starting like around 3.34 o'clock in the evening.

Up to like, you know, 9 o'clock 930, I sit and paint continuously. So when you create a mind when you're at a offline job, you know, when I come out of that process, like I'm like a thousand times lethal.

Oh, awesome. Beautiful. Amazing thing. It's beautiful, awesome. Like you know, like you have to go there to experience it. The energy is like so sacred.

“And it gives you a lot of clarity of thought. Now coming to the mind, I've had a very turbulent early day in my life, early days, right? So my brother has bipolarity.”

Okay, so that's the reason why I didn't have a bipolarity. So basically, the unity is there. And he used to see things that no one could see that he would experience. It's a very smart one. Like his IQ was like beyond any imagination. So, and it was a taboo for us, like living in a slum, right? Think about it. He used to talk about it. He used to talk about something or something like that. Not until like 2004. He was actually detected in '99 for every one thought like you were a unipolar, not bipolar.

So his treatment was also related to his protocol. So basically he got obese. He had all kinds of other problems.

And then when we went to great memorial like in Atlanta, they discovered it. But all of that life, right? Oh, time to be a couple of times, he went to the village. A couple of times, basically, like, you know, a child can hear that. He was a treatment. So mental health is like such a taboo.

“Right? And I lived with that. And I feel like, you know, like, we don't talk about it as much. No, now I think people are coming out like, D.P.K.A.Padupani and they've told you to sub-log, they're mental health important.”

Farming on that, especially now. Everything is so fast-paced and the stressors are so much more. You're constantly in the midst of meeting deadlines and, you know, I don't know, it's such a shallow life. You know, a lot of people are living, especially the younger generation where everything is, you know, about how you look and the pressure of living up to someone else's expectations or being like someone else. Comparisons, it's really, really sad. We didn't grow up, you know, with those pressures. So this generation is dealing with far more.

But they're also far more elevated souls. Let me also say that because I have children and I've seen the clarity that they have, we didn't have at that age.

Especially for this generation, I feel there's nothing, I always say this that the mind is more powerful than the body.

So if you tell your mind that my body can do this, your body will. But if the mind has decided that it can't, nothing no one can make it happen.

“So you have to be able to train your mind and that can only happen with or, or regimen. And when it comes to mental health, I would urge people to please seek help.”

When you break, you know, you break a bone, you will go to a doctor, right? You will go to a physiotherapy, a seek therapy. And rehabilitation is a process. When you take with your mind, you must seek therapy if you can afford it. Or you go, you start doing yoga. It's a cheapest way. You'll not even need to invest in a mat. You can do it on the ground. So I mean breathing is a tool that you can use. And you will see the change, you know, it'll, it'll have an effects, it'll have positively in your life.

Very good, very interesting. So tell me a little bit like, you know, there is a screen and then there's a person. So your son watches you a lot on the screen. He doesn't. He's not even able to do it. He's working when he was walking. He's like three films. Yeah, and none of my films are on. I like really like one of the one of, I like a lot of him movies, but my father used to say, like, yeah, he's a gana brother, like a two-kilari man, I hate it. So anyway, so life and metro is amazing.

Like, how do you distinguish between the image and the person? Like, how do you teach them that?

“I think they're very smart. We underestimate the intelligence of kids. They have a different understanding.”

My daughter was five, and I asked her, is it's a measure? What is it that you want to become? Because my son said, you know, Mama, I think I'm going to, he wants to be an actor, director, whatever. He's going to get into, there's something called jeans. I, I believe that. So I asked my daughter, I was intrigued. I said, so, what is it that you want to become? You know what she said to me? She said, Mama, I want to become famous. She said, I want to be famous. So I was like, a four-year-old, four-and-a-half, she was at that time.

She said, that to me, because she's seen, she's seen people react to me in a certain way, give me love, you know, pap's clevering for photos.

She thinks it's a great position to be in, for people, you know, are showing you that kind of love, and she doesn't know the cons.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not yet. But her understanding, but then she also knows that Mama goes to work to get that, but Mama will come home and put her to bed as well. So that kind of understanding is built. So why I'm at home is just Mama for them. They know that that screen persona is one thing. So you don't carry it home. Why do you carry it?

Can't you carry it? You can't, you can't bring that, because conversation meaning you at that dinner table, where you can't be called.

No, we never discuss those things at the table.

We're very aware what should be said in front of the kids, and one must be. Our discussions, our personal discussions, our serious discussions will be in the confines of a room between my husband and me. We'll never be in front of the kids.

“So what is that one value that you're teaching your kids today that you want them to inherit?”

To be good human beings, and to be kind. You have grace and a fire. Yeah, very beautiful. Yeah, so everyone is actually talking about artificial intelligence today. Like, you know, it's like, you know, it's the talk of it on AI actually.

Indian government actually hosted the AI summit as well here. A lot of big guys showed up, a lot of investments going in. So my question to you is, are we building a more disconnected, more lonely or world in the world of intelligence? Or are we trying to build a more connected world throughout artificial intelligence? What is your take on that?

AI functions on the basis of data, right? So it will answer you or rather cater to your demands depending on the data that it's been fed with or it's accumulated. So I think it's a, it's like power. It's neutral. Power is neutral. It really depends on the hands that use it or the hands that it gets into. So you have to use it depending on where you are using it with whom you're using it.

So I think as a parent, I would teach my children discernment when it comes to AI and as a business woman, I would use it ethically.

“So I think you should use it and you must use AI because it is, or it's a tomb and not new.”

It has a threat, but know how to use it. So there's a lot of deep fakes, a lot of like, you know, so does that concern you? Like the kids are growing up with that and they will assume like whatever they see is what they, what is reality? Absolutely. It does concern me and we've had a lot of issues with kids,

It's a different world that we're living in.

“I think in this time and age as a parent, you have to be very aware about what your kids are doing.”

One and also teaching them, educating them, not to believe everything. So I think discernment is definitely a great factor and honesty. To tell them that you know, use it to your advantage and don't get addicted. That I think really is the important aspect. While you can make your life very easy, it's very easy to also, you know,

you tend to stop using your mind. So I just feel that you have to know where to cut off and how to use it. So as far as the deep fakes and all of that are concerned, I mean, we've had huge concern as actors.

“So I actually filed for personality rights.”

There are so many sites that are actually using my face with those images. So it's scary and my son.

You were the first time I understood that I am so dumb and children are smarter than us.

My 13 year old. So there was a site with these two girls with two, you know, heads. And I thought this was, you know, a scientist, twin kind of situation. And he was like, Mama, you are so naive. This is AI.

And I was like, oh my god, we aren't just looking at how they live. You know, they look so genuine. But imagine someone who's actually seeing the world is seeing the world. Like taking it like, as if this is the truth. And then there are so many of these, like on even on the ground.

They're giving you yarn, they're telling you stuff. And there are people in important positions. You know, saying things that are actually not mean you're not said by them. So really, you really have to use discretion. And you have to really be aware.

So it was my son and brought it to my notice. So I don't know how kids, this generation, the gen Z and the gen Alpha, Alpha is no, in an instant, that this is fake. And this isn't. And this can actually open up a whole array of choices for you to make.

“And I think that is an advantage for this generation.”

So from his standpoint, I think AI is great. But from mine, I feel like an old hat to learn a lot. But thankfully, I have kids who are teaching me. And it's my time to learn. Very good.

So with that, you know, I wanted to really enjoy the two hours that we spend.

I'm sure like there's going to be a lot of amazing takeaway for a lot of people out there.

We're listening to this. Thank you for your time and thank you for making the time with us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. All the very best. Thank you so much. You're an elevated soul yourself. This wonderful wonderful.