Mother's Day Exclusive: Juhi Parmar says, 'Very easy to judge a single parent'

In Pic: Juhi Parmar with her daughter Samaira

Widely known for her role as Kumkum, Juhi Parmar is also the mother of her 11-year-old daughter Samaira. As Mother's Day is approaching, Juhi, in an exclusive chat with midday.com, discussed several things about her motherhood journey as a single parent.

Juhi Parmar got married to Sachin Shroff in 2009, but the two later decided to go their separate ways on June 25, 2018. In conversation with us, Juhi said that she would love to play the part of a single parent to give people a reality check. "Judgements are very easy to pass for a single parent but to actually get a peek into a single parent's life and see how challenging it is, yet how beautiful it is, how overwhelming it is, how wholesome it is. I've always said that a single parent should be called a double parent because that one person is playing a double role. So, I've played double roles in almost all my shows. I'm playing a double role in my real life too because I'm the mother, I'm the father. And if you get to see a show from a single parent's point of view, a lot of people who are sitting out there with preconceived notions about a single parent, especially a woman, will really have the veil off their heads," she said.

Further in the interview, Juhi opened up about how becoming a mother changes a lot of things at work. The actress shared that according to her, film actors are the most affected by this. She said, "Becoming a mother doesn't make such a huge difference in TV and OTT. I think it's more to do with films. And now even that is not happening."

She further gave an example of Alia Bhatt and said, "All our beautiful actresses, they all are mothers. The best example is Alia Bhatt. I mean, she's doing such wonderful work and you can't even imagine that she has changed. She's not changed one week before being a mother and after being a mother. You can't imagine that she's a mother already. Yeah. She still looks like the same young girl. So, I think it's a thing of the past when it used to make a difference as such."

"Earlier, it was not even just becoming a mother. Even getting married used to really change the career of actresses. But with time, people and their thinking are evolving and that really does not make such a huge difference," she concluded.

When asked if she was one of the actresses who wanted to shed weight just after her pregnancy, Juhi said, "I took one full year to get back to dieting and all. Even a workout for that matter. I didn't want to diet because I didn't want to deprive my child of the nutrition, and I was feeding her for almost a year. So, that was one of the reasons."

She continued, "I knew that if I'm not going to be able to diet, workout basic I could do, but weight loss is not going to happen. So, after one year, I got into fitness again and I started my workout, which was not starving, but correct eating, and then lost weight."

While talking about the idea of having a specific day to celebrate mothers, Juhi concluded, "See, it's like when we celebrate somebody's birthday. That does not mean that we're not celebrating their life throughout the year. But that one day, you just celebrate it all the more. You get a reason to be happier or to do things for each other or to make that person smile and feel special. I look at Mother's Day like that. It doesn't mean that apart from that one day, mothers are not special. Mothers are the backbone of our life and they are so special to us, so important in our life. That just one day is never enough. It's just that one day when you just make them feel all the more special."

Juhi Parmar was most recently seen in Yeh Meri Family season 3. The mini-series is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Videos and Amazon Mini TV.