Actor Kunal Nayyar starred on The Big Bang
Theory as astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali.
And while he's certainly made a name for himself
with 12 seasons of the popular show, we're
dishing on his "better half", his wife, Neha
Kapur.
Kapur is truly a classic beauty, with her
sophisticated grace, literate fashion sense,
and perfect skin. She stands at an impressive
5'10" and sports a flowing mane of dark hair
that frames her elegant face. But surprisingly,
she wasn't an outwardly confident schoolgirl
back in the day. She told Wearabout,
"I was an introvert at school. Most of my
time was spent either in the library or in
the painting room."
While she was able to nurture her creative
spirit, it's kind of wild to imagine her not
being the center of attention. Kapur has her
suspicions as to why she was the opposite
of a social butterfly, adding,
"I also stood back in the line at school because
I was the tallest. There is a [connection]?
Anyway, it was ridiculous!"
Clearly this beauty finally learned to take
her space.
"I think the next time I have to speak to
a call center in India, I'm going to try using
an American accent."
Although Kapur has moved to Southern California
to be with her husband, she's still very fond
of her home city of Delhi. She told Wearabout,
"I am biased about Delhi, [I] was born and
brought up there. I think it gives one more
freedom and space. It is more culturally inclined.
And the most you can sit in a [traffic] jam
is 45 minutes and not 2 hours."
Given that L.A. is infamous for its congested
traffic, you know that was a jab at her adopted
home. As to where she recommends people travel
in her native country, she told The New Potato,
"It would be unfair to call out one city that
you should see first, as India is so vast
and it gives a different experience depending
on which part you see first."
Even so, she does recommend visiting the Dalai
Lama, seeing the Taj Mahal, exploring the
Golden Temple in Amritsar, and scoping out
the Red Fort, among other destinations.
It should come as no surprise that Kapur was
a model for quite a long time. She certainly
has both the looks and the height for the
profession. She told Wearabout in 2011,
"I have done it for 9 years now…After a
point there's everything you've done…So
once you're done with all that, and the moment
it starts becoming a job, it's time to move
on."
"It's just completely going back home and
sleeping and getting ready for the next day."
At the time, she was just about to move to
Los Angeles, so she was plotting out what
her next career move would be. She added,
"I would love to do something in design and
art, not clothes. I'd like to get back to
maybe studying art again."
It sounds like she never lost that creative
spirit.
"The Pond's Femina Miss India Universe...Contestant
number 50, Neha Kapur!"
In 2006, Kapur won Miss India and went on
to represent her country at the Miss Universe
pageant that year. That's a serious accomplishment,
given how competitive pageants are, and it's
something she looks back on fondly. She recalled
the experience, telling The New Potato,
"Miss India was special. Much against my will,
my godmother [who was also my agent] made
me participate, and it changed my life forever."
Of everything that she remembers about the
big day, one thing stands out to her as the
greatest highlight. She said,
"The best memory from that day was winning
in front of my parents, my godmother, and
all of my closest friends. I will never forget
that moment because of the love I felt in
the room."
"You realize just how incredibly lucky you
are as a man?"
"Yes."
Sparks flew from the very beginning for Kapur
and Nayyar, literally from the second they
first met. Thanks to a friend, Kapur happened
to be in the right place at the right time.
She told Vogue India,
"Kunal was visiting India, and my friend called
me, saying, 'Oh, this really great guy is
visiting from America.' There was a party
at a bar, and I saw Kunal dressed all L.A.,
the star."
"I was invited to some party, and she was
there and I was like, 'Wow, she's so hot.'"
Of course, Nayyar noticed Kapur's stunning
looks, and offered to buy her a drink, and
that's where their whirlwind romance started.
Nayyar told the outlet,
"We sat in a corner at a little table with
a candle for three hours. It was amazing."
"I'm 5'8" and she's 5'10" but she was wearing
5 inch heels so she was 6'3. I was like, 'Sit
down, I'll buy you a drink.'"
After that, they spent every possible minute
together until Nayyar had to go back to Los
Angeles nine days later. Kapur came to visit
him in L.A. three weeks after that, where
it became even clearer that their romance
was as serious as it gets.
In 2011, Kapur and Nayyar officially tied
the knot. And even though they had been dating
since late 2008, Nayyar was totally blown
away when he saw his wife walk down the aisle.
He told Vogue India,
"My favourite moment was seeing Neha for the
first time that day. It still gives me the
shivers to think of how beautiful she looked."
But Nayyar wasn't just focused on Kapur's
looks. It was something deeper. He added,
"I mean, I obviously know my wife is beautiful,
the whole world knows she's beautiful. But
there was something more than physical beauty
at play when she was walking. It was spiritual,
she was a vision…I'll never forget that
till the day I die."
But Nayyar wasn't the only one witnessing
the moment. He told Conan of the wedding:
"It was six days, a thousand people."
"How can you fit a thousand people?"
"Because there's like, billions of people
in India. So it's just, my whole neighborhood
came to the wedding."
Given that the pair opted for a traditional
wedding, there were a lot of rituals they
had to include as part of the ceremony. That
included the groom's entrance to the wedding,
atop a white horse. And in his case, a skittish
horse.
"It's like bucking up and down, and I'm thinking,
'How sad is this? Like, this is the day that
I'm going to die.'"
The whole thing may have made Nayyar a little
nervous, but everything turned out just fine.
Once the wedding celebration was over, it
was time for Kapur to move to Los Angeles
permanently...and time for Nayyar to vacate
his bachelor pad in favor of a home they could
share together. The newlyweds purchased a
1948 Spanish hacienda, and initially Nayyar
was anxious about how they would furnish their
new home. He once mused to Architectural Digest,
quote, "What will we do with this space?"
Fortunately for him, his wife knew exactly
what to do. He said,
"Neha being very cultured and having a very
good eye, she saw this vision of the place."
With the help of designers, they got to work
on making their house a home, striving for
what Nayyar called…
"An amalgamation of the country we live in
and the country we're from and the places
we've traveled. We want this to be a story
of our journey."
The couple also prioritized having an indoor-outdoor
energy that flowed seamlessly. Kapur added,
"We wanted to have this living, breathing
energy, so you see a lot of plants inside,
and there's a Buddha inside and outside."
Some people need to mix things up in order
to be fulfilled, but that's not the case for
Kapur, who told The New Potato,
"I am a creature of habit. My day usually
begins with lighting incense and conducting
prayers at the two shrines I have in the house,
then making a pot of English Breakfast Tea
with shortbread cookies…and talking with
my parents in India."
She does all this at 6:30 in the morning,
followed by yoga, then breakfast at 10:30.
The rest of Kapur's schedule is also pretty
methodical. She added,
"I practice yoga four times a week, and every
two hours I get hungry. I spend a lot of my
day behind my desk, so I always keep almonds
and cranberries handy."
Neha, we feel you on those healthy habits!
It's impossible to miss that Kapur is quite
the fashionista, stunning every time she hits
the red carpet. But it turns out that a lot
of that fashion savvy was shaped by her experiences
back in her home country. She told The New
Potato,
"I have some of the fondest memories from
India Fashion Week. This is where my love
for fashion grew, and I made some of the closest
friends I have today."
For Kapur, the event is especially inspiring
because of the people who attend it, making
it quite the style incubator. She added,
"It is such a creative space, full of young
designers, and veterans. It was a great platform
to launch into the world of fashion for me,
and it continues to grow even today for young
talent."
In 2014, Kapur was ready to share her new
creative endeavor with the world. And it would
be her label, Hensely, that would put her
on the map as a bona fide designer. Inspired
by her cultural identity, she debuted the
brand in the fall of 2016, telling Vogue,
"My upbringing was classical in terms of music
and Indian dance, how my parents were at home.
I wanted to put together something that mixed
my Eastern sensibility with something that
had a kind of storytelling behind it, because
that's what dance is."
When it comes to Kapur's style icon, it all
goes back to her roots: Her mom. She told
The New Potato,
"You will always find her in the most beautiful
Sarees. Even today she takes extra care in
dressing up. She always has a flower in her
hair, and she always matches the color of
her Bindi to her Saree."
Clearly her mom's got it going on in the style
department. And she's passed it all on to
her daughter.
"Biggest splurge?"
"Oh man I mean, I'm Indian, so I'm such an
accountant, but probably all of my wife's
jewelry."
For Kapur, when it comes to food, there's
only one thing on the menu that qualifies
as her absolute favorite: sushi. She told
The New Potato,
"Sushi for breakfast, sushi for lunch and
sushi for dinner. If it were up to me, I would
end every day with sushi."
Of course, Kapur eats more than just sushi;
she has granola and yogurt for breakfast and
an arugula salad for lunch. She and her husband
also enjoy making homemade Indian food, something
they both miss from their home country. She
said,
"I love making simple yellow lentils with
Basmati white steamed rice, and old school
dry Indian potatoes. Kunal makes the meanest
Lamb Keema…and kebobs. I always overeat
when he cooks."
"When I'm coming home from India to America,
I stock all Indian pickles, all legally, Indian
pickles..."
You can learn a lot about a person by asking
them who they'd invite to dinner, living or
dead. So when asked about this in an interview
with The New Potato, Kapur shared,
"I would like to invite my [late] paternal
Grandfather who loved to write and was a philosopher,
and my maternal Grandfather who was the first
Lt. Governor of Delhi, both of whom I never
met…I would [also] invite my husband Kunal
[who I admire, love and respect immensely.]"
So what would be on the menu for this ultimate
feast? She said,
"I would definitely cook up a storm of Indian
delicacies, or just order in, so I get to
spend more time with all of them."
"To be around friends, to be around families,
those evenings that we have."
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