No TV, no phones: Rahul Sharma reveals how Asin is raising their 7-year-old daughter Arin

There was a time when Asin Thottumkal was one of the most famous female actors in Indian cinema. After starring in some of the biggest Tamil and Telugu movies of the early 2000s, she moved to Bollywood and debuted by playing the female lead opposite Aamir Khan in Ghajini (2008), which officially opened the Rs 100 crore club in India. Although her acting career was brief, she reached phenomenal heights before retiring following her marriage to Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma in 2016.

Rahul Sharma on marriage with Asin

During a recent interview, Rahul spoke in detail about their relationship and how she remains an unseen force behind his success. "Marrying Asin was the most important thing that worked well for me. She is the rock behind me. If anything happens — whatever it is — she is the one who says, 'Don't worry... you just move forward.' She understands me and my passion. She is a blind believer. If you have such people around you, life becomes very easy," he said during an interview with MyGov India.

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"Our partner should be the person who lifts us, not one who pulls us from behind," he pointed out, adding that the same logic applies in friendship as well. "She is that person for me... she lifts me. Her contribution to my life is more than what I can explain."

How Asin and Rahul are raising daughter Arin

Opening up about parenthood and their family, he said, "We also have a beautiful daughter (Arin Rayn Sharma). She is just seven years old now but can already understand and speak about 12 languages, including Korean, Japanese, Thai, and Chinese. I am finding it difficult to speak even two languages. We are stuck with English and Hindi."

"You are not just fighting a war outside, but you also have to face a similar one within your home, right? She (Asin) is the one who takes care of the latter [in our home]. I have never seen a person like her in my life," he said.

Rahul Sharma then added that they don't have a television at home and don't give their daughter any screen time. "We have not given Arin any screens thus far — no TVs or mobile phones. We only have books at home. We probably have more books at home than Arin has at her school. She is in Class 2 right now, but we already have books for Classes 8 and 9 at home. I quip once in a while, saying, 'Let her appear for the Class 10 board exam as well. What difference does it make?' It's all Asin's contribution to us," he pointed out, giving full credit to Asin for the person Arin has turned out to be.

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Asin's stellar journey in Indian cinema

Hailing from Keralam, Asin commenced her career by appearing in commercials, which paved the way for her cinematic debut in the Malayalam film Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka (2001). After a brief break, she returned by appearing opposite Ravi Teja in the Telugu film Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi (2003), which marked her breakthrough.

Asin subsequently appeared in Nagarjuna's Sivamani (2003); Nandamuri Balakrishna's Lakshmi Narasimha (2004); Venkatesh's Gharshana (2004); Ravi Mohan's M Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi (2004); Prabhas' Chakram (2005); Suriya's Ghajini (2005) and Vel (2007); Vikram's Majaa (2005); Vijay's Sivakasi (2005), Pokkiri (2007) and Kaavalan (2011); Ajith Kumar's Varalaru (2006) and Aalwar (2007); Pawan Kalyan's Annavaram (2006); and Dasavathaaram (2008).

After making her Bollywood debut with Ghajini, where she reprised her role from the Tamil original of the same title, Asin played central characters in Salman Khan's London Dreams (2009) and Ready (2011); Akshay Kumar's Housefull 2 (2012) and Khiladi 786 (2012); and Ajay Devgn's Bol Bachchan (2012). All Is Well (2015), where she shared the screen with Abhishek Bachchan, became her last movie before retirement.

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