While actor Esha Gupta is the younger sibling, her elder sister, fashion designer Neha Guptta has one complaint from her this Raksha Bandhan: “Esha is very disciplined but at times, she forgets that I am the elder sister.” The younger sibling reasons by saying, “It’s because she is never on time. But I am lucky that I have another mother in her form. I have two mothers and one father.”
Reflecting on their bond growing up, Neha says that they were raised to be “very strong and independent kids, and we had a great friendship with each other”. Esha adds to it, saying, “We never fought and more than friends, we were just sisters. She was the nicer one amongst us. I remember she’d hide her report cards, and I would find them and show them to mom and dad. I used to blackmail her but now that we’ve grown up, it’s both of us against the world. I see my mom and maasi talking and I tell her, it’s going to be us in 5-10 years.”
Professionally too, Neha is glad to have Esha as her sister as she became her muse. “I had a mannequin at home with me to try on my clothes. She was the perfect model for my garments and my forever encourager,” Neha says, while the actor adds, “More than a model, I was always her free client and still am. She is too nice to say no. Even when I am 80, I’ll still be the baby to her.”
Even though Neha was the elder sister, she admits that Esha used to be her “protector” in school. Relating to it, Esha shares quite a fascinating incident: “Neha di had a stalker in college. There was one physical altercation between them and there were cops involved. I called up my cousin and his friends on my own. Soon, there were 10 cars, and all these people had come with hockey sticks, rackets and bats.”
But even Neha self-admittedly is “overly possessive” about her sister. “I don’t like it when she isn’t able to answer my calls because she is maybe busy chatting with her friends. I want to know everything about her,” she says.
Esha is currently dating entrepreneur Manuel Campos Guallar and is quite happy about the equation he shares with Neha. “Spanish families are a lot like Indian families. They know what the other member is doing at all times. Neha di and Manual have a great, trustworthy relationship. If I am not picking up the call, she’ll call him and vice versa. And I have the same equation with his sister,” the actor shares.
Recalling their Raksha Bandhan memories, Esha shares, “When we were young, we had cousins, and it used to be a full family celebration. But it was five years back or so when we started tying each other rakhi. It’s out of awareness and realising that we are there for each other. It’s about whoever protects you. When we actually did that and posted about it, no actress or influencer had done that before.” Even with both of them tying rakhi to the other, who ends up gifting whom? “I only have to land up giving the gift on any occasion. It’s because there I become the elder one,” Neha says cheekily.
