Ayushmann: 'Badhaai Ho' triggered important conversation in India about late pregnancy

Ayushmann said, "Most of my films are meant for families to come in and engage, take back an important message and most importantly, be thoroughly entertained. I have been blessed to find scripts that are new, unique and have a family audience skew as well. 'Badhaai Ho', for me, ticked all these boxes and I'm thankful that the film triggered an important conversation in India about how society should react to late pregnancy. Society conditions us to react in a certain way when such things happen."

The film, released in 2018, directed by Amit Sharma, also featured Neena Gupta, Gajaraj Rao, Sanya Malhotra and the late Surekha Sikri among others.

Ayushmann further added, "We wanted to show people why it's not as big a deal that we make it out to be. We wanted people to see this issue from a more inclusive lens and tell them that it should not be seen as a taboo. That, to me, was the success of 'Badhaai Ho'. My next line up starting with 'Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui', also falls under this bracket and is a wholesome family entertainer."

Ayushmann is deeply missing the stalwart late actress Surekha Sikri, a National Award winner, today.

As he emotionally said, "I'm also fortunate that I got to work with a towering performer like the late Surekha Sikriji in this film. She was a gentle soul with incredible depth as a human being and learnt a few life lessons by being on the set with her. I miss her and I'm sure the industry misses her terribly too."