Bharat Dev Varma, the father of actresses Raima Sen and Riya Sen and husband of actress Moon Moon Sen, passed away on Tuesday, November 19, 2024. He fell ill on Tuesday morning and promptly, a private hospital in Kolkata was notified. But before the ambulance arrived,  Bharat Dev Varma breathed his last. During a recent interview with Zoom before her father's death, Raima Sen opened up about her father and talked about her childhood. She specifically mentioned that despite being from a royal family, her father never 'spoiled' her and sister Riya Sen. He kept them grounded and also shared some details about her father's lineage. When asked that coming from a royal family on her father's side and veteran actress Suchitra Sen being her grandmother, she never felt the pressure, Raima said, "So, because my father is from the royal family side – his mother and Gayatri Devi were real sisters – we've grown up with Gayatri Devi; we've seen the weddings, we've gone to the royal balls. We've seen the best of both worlds, thanks to my grandmothers...My grandmother (Suchitra Sen) wasn’t in the movies when we were born, so we didn’t see that film world through my grandmother. But we saw the film world through my mother (Moon Moon Sen). She started acting after Riya and I were born. So,  we saw the film world very well through my mother’s eyes." Bharat Dev Varma, Moon Moon Sen’s Husband and Raima Sen’s Father, Passes Away at 83.

Raima added, "And from my father’s royal family side, we experienced it while growing up. We attended all the weddings, went to the palaces. So, we saw that side as well. But the good thing is, my father kept us very grounded. He never spoiled us. He brought us up like regular children from next door."

Talking about her childhood and her upbringing, Raima said, "We didn’t understand how big my grandmother was or how big my mother was until much later in our lives. When we were going to school, we were treated like any other kid. We had to beg for Barbie dolls, beg for sharpeners, and wear the same kind of clothes as others. We weren’t given more than Rs. 10 as pocket money when we were in school. My father didn’t let us realise the stardom around us or spoil us in any way."

"So, because he brought us up like that from a young age, even today, we have no airs, no tantrums. We are really like regular people. When people see me now in real life, they say, ‘Oh my God, it’s Suchitra Sen’s granddaughter. We didn’t think she’d be like this’. They get shocked, but that’s because, from a young age, my father brought us up like this," she added. The Last Hour: Raima Sen Recalls Giving a Screen Test for Her Role in the Upcoming Amazon Prime Video's Series.

Raima proudly said that her father kept things under control. "He didn’t let anything touch us—not fame, not success, not failure—nothing. Neither fame nor stardom spoiled us. We understood my mother was famous only because, when she used to pick us up from school, the whole school would shout, ‘Moon Moon Sen’s coming, Moon Moon Sen’s coming!’ and run to get her autograph. Riya and I wouldn’t understand why they wanted her autograph. We went to her sets, saw her shooting, and travelled with her, but we didn’t think much of it. We didn’t realise anything until much later when we got into movies at 15 and 17," said the actress.

Raima Sen was recently seen in Aliya Basu Gayab Hai and The Vaccine War.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 20, 2024 08:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).