Karan Singh Grover: I’m a very chipku, emotional guy, don’t like to sleep without Bipasha | Exclusive

Bipasha Basu with Karan Singh Grover and their daughter Devi

On Valentine's Day this year, one of the first Bollywood couples to share mushy pictures and wish each other was Karan Singh Grover and Bipasha Basu. The couple, who got married in 2016, are raising their daughter Devi together, who was only 5 days old when the actor had to leave to shoot for the first schedule of his latest release, the action film Fighter.

As Karan Singh Grover celebrates his birthday today, here's an excerpt from a recent chat where the actor talked about parenting, how attached he is to his wife Bipasha and how hard her postpartum period was.

It's been more than a year since Devi was born. Does she keep you guys on your toes?

Oh yeah. I wish I had like 20 toes. Thankfully we have great help, but she's nonstop, she is just like her mother actually. They are both tornadoes as soon as they wake up. So we are always on our toes. Everything is about Devi and everything is around Devi. It's quite divine actually, to see how she looks at everything and the little things and the stuff that she says.

Have you guys discussed about how much to share about Devi on social media, because star kids attract a lot of attention?

To each his own, I believe. Some people want to show their babies, others don't. It's their choice. Plus, Bipasha says that we don't have Devi's permission to show her face, to be showing her in the media. I think by the time we ask her for permission, I don't know what she's going to say, because she's so social. She always wants to say hi to everyone. We actually have to hold her face when the paparazzi come, and they are sweet enough to listen when we ask them not to click her.

Were you shooting for Fighter during the time Bipasha was expecting or was Devi just born?

Our first schedule for Fighter was 17th of November, and Devi was born on the 12th of November. So she was five days old when I went to Tejpur for my first schedule.

That must have been heartbreaking!

Yeah, no, I mean, I was going to shoot Fighter, so that was another excitement, to be shooting with Siddharth Anand and Mamata and everybody in the cast in such a beautiful film. And then you're going to a real Air Force base in Tejpur and you'll see the real Sukhois there. But then you have this small little baby, who I had skin-to-skin with first because we had a cesarean.

The whole nine months I was with Bipasha every day, every night. The first three months I didn't even leave the room because she was suffering. I don't know, you women are some other creatures of God, I swear. I don't know how you do it, but respect to all of you.

And then to leave her right after... you know, the cut takes time to heal. We did so much research before getting the cesarean and we learned how to turn the bed so the stitches don't open and how it'll be better for her to get up from bed and how I'll be able to help her. But then on the fifth day of her birth I had to leave, in the most difficult time, the whole experience was intense.

How much did you manage to balance new fatherhood and playing Taj in a film like Fighter at the same time?

Somehow, playing Taj and shooting for the film kind of took me away from whining about missing my wife and child. I'm very whiny, I'm very lame like that. I don't like sleeping without Bipasha, I'm very chipku guy. It's hard to get rid of me. I follow her around all the time.

I'm very needy and emotional. She says that I'm her tail and now Devi is also her tail. So she has two tails. She's an independent woman who's going about her business and we guys are just attached to her. Sometimes she says, ‘Get away from me, man.'

Playing Taj actually helped me. I went for my work, but then my work helped me in my personal life also, so that's a beautiful intertwining of lives. Because he's so light, he says only bad jokes to just crack up everyone around, so that the vibe around is light.