Love takes centrestage

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The stage is their altar and theatre their passion. For theatre and advertising veteran Alyque Padamsee and his not-so-conventional family, love for the stage and its craft keeps them a close-knit gang. And despite having been married three times, the veteran actor and ad guru believes in living in harmony with his ex-wives, children and grandson. It’s heartening to see the warmth the family members share. Alyque Padamsee, the patriarch of the Padamsee family, says that he believes in falling in love with everything he does. As much as he loves his independence, he is extremely close to his family and children. The family makes it a point to come together to celebrate Alyque’s birthday.
He was married to the late Pearl Padamsee, then Dolly Thakore and much later came Sharon Prabhakar. He has three children Raell Padamsee (from Pearl), Quasar Thakore Padamsee (from Dolly Thakore) and Shazahn Padamsee (from Sharon Prabhakar). Alyque says that even though his marriages didn’t work out, he remained the best of friends with his ex-wives.
“Pearl and I had to wait for the longest time to settle down. Although, she is no more now, her memories will always remain with me. I miss her a lot. Dolly and I were drawn to each other and later due to excessive travelling, our relationship didn’t work out. But after Sharon came into my life, she brought the whole family together. At times people would look at us in awe whenever the whole family went out partying,” says Alyque. He says that although he couldn’t give his children the time they deserved, he shares a wonderful relationship with all of them.
Raell Padamsee, a renowned theatre personality having carved a niche for herself in the industry, credits her father for keeping the family together. “Your family is incredibly important to you. It forms such a huge part of who you are. I grew up in a stable environment. Since my parents were working all the time and we would have our house bustling with people, I grew up in a full house. We had an inclusive kind of upbringing. I share a great bond with both Quasar and Shazahn. Q and I consult each other quite often on our TV projects,” Raell says.
The half siblings are quite close to each other. Quasar admits that his family may be unconventional, but it has strong individual personalities. “All of us have strong distinctive personalities. We all have different mothers, but it never came across that way. I always thought I had three mums. I think your family plays an important role in moulding you as a person and your sensibilities. The idea of a holiday for us is to probably catch a play together or watch a film. We share our parents and I don’t think it could get better than that,” says Quasar.
He adds that between him and Shazahn, it’s more of a conventional brother-sister relatonship. “Raell is more like a mentor and guide to me. She will always give me advice on my plays or a script. With Shazahn, it’s more like being by her side like an elder brother. I like that,” he says.