Janhvi Kapoor may often come across as composed and cheerful in public, but she has now revealed that the period following her debut film Dhadak was far more emotionally turbulent than it appeared.Speaking on Raj Shamani’s podcast, Janhvi revisited her state of mind around the film’s release in 2018. Despite the film’s commercial success and positive feedback, she said her personal experience was marked by self-doubt and emotional distress.“You know, every time anyone talks to me about my first film, Dhadak, they are like, ‘she was so good in it’ or that ‘we loved Dhadak’ and ‘you earned a lot of money’… But my memory of Dhadak was very different. I was depressed after Dhadak. I thought ho gaya and that packup hogaya (I am done). People hate me,” she shared.Janhvi went on to explain how the loss of her mother, legendary actor Sridevi, deeply impacted her during that phase. Sridevi passed away just months before Dhadak hit theatres, leaving Janhvi grappling with grief while stepping into the spotlight.“I got all of my validation in my life from my mom. She went away. So I was like, okay, I’m going to shift that to the audience. And I was expecting some across-the-board acceptance, which I didn’t know does not exist,” she said.
Reflecting on her mindset at the time, the actor admitted that she fixated only on criticism, ignoring the film’s success. “I was only concentrating on the negative. I didn’t concentrate or even acknowledge the fact that it was a very… I think it was the most commercially successful film with newcomers up until Saiyaara. It didn’t even click to me that it was a hit. I just knew that I sucked and people hated me… Because I only looked at the negative, and that became my reality.” Directed by Shashank Khaitan and backed by Karan Johar, Dhadak also starred Ishaan Khatter and was the official Hindi remake of the Marathi blockbuster Sairat.