Madhuri Dixit's husband Dr Sriram Nene's parents refused to fund him if he didn't become a doctor or engineer: 'It was rewarding'

Madhuri Dixit left fans and the film industry surprised when she tied the knot with US-based cardiovascular surgeon Shriram Nene in 1999 and left movies. The wedding, held on October 17 at her elder brother’s home in Southern California, was a low-key affair, and little was publicly known about Dr Nene at the time. Born in London and raised in the United States, he grew up in a family of immigrants who valued traditional, stable career choices.Years after staying in the US, Madhuri and Dr Nene returned to Mumbai and the actress slowly started getting back to work. Meanwhile, now Dr Nene also is often spotted with her at several occasions and he is equally famous, also through social media and their Youtube channel. Recently, he opened up about the expectations set by his parents. He said during a chat with INKtalks while opening up on his early life, “I had a software company when I was 14 and my migrant parents said that you either become a doctor or an engineer or we don’t pay for it. That’s their algorithm as first generation parents, they didn’t know anything better. But I, dutifully, then did not go to Stanford, did not go to Berkeley even though I got in everywhere and went to an undergrad medicine program at Washington University, finished there, went to UCLA, did general and vascular surgery, then did heart surgery at University of Florida and then practiced.”He also spoke about the fulfilment he found in medicine, particularly in life-or-death situations where precision and timing were critical. He added, “What I found, time and again, is I could come in, in the nick of time, with millimetres and milliseconds and save lives. And it was very rewarding because you would see patients on death’s door, come back. And it was a team effort, 80 of us, like a very large cricket team or football team coming together to do something which mattered.”In a separate video on his YouTube channel, Dr Nene reflected on his decision to relocate to India in 2011, admitting that it wasn’t an easy transition for his family. “I am Indian. I grew up from an immigrant start and my parents certainly weren’t happy that I am leaving the prototypical job of a heart surgeon and kind of every Indian’s wet dream with like perfect sort of situations and lots of friends and the head of the hospital. But I could operate, at the most, on 3-5 patients with open heart surgery and in a year maybe 500 patients.”Following their marriage, Madhuri and Dr Nene built a life together and welcomed two sons—Arin, born on March 17, 2003, and Ryan, born on March 8, 2005.