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5 Oct 2026 | 12:06 Speaking to Ranveer Allahbadia on his podcast, the Tamil star explained how he and his wife Shailaja raised their children. Dhruv later made his acting debut with Adithya Varma and starred alongside his father in Mahaan (2022), directed by Karthik Subbaraj. A 2015 study published in PNAS followed 565 children, aged 7 to 12, over time.
He said, “From the very beginning, we insisted that they go by school vans. I told my son, ‘Nobody should know who your father is, never tell…” His daughter took the idea so seriously that when someone once asked if Vikram was her father, she came home crying, saying, ‘I have an identity, how can he ask me that?’” His son Dhruv, on the other hand, was always eager to let people know where he came from. The article says he believes popular actors struggle to make friends, so he told Dhruv to be ready for loneliness, and that Dhruv has realised he stands out. The American Psychological Association (APA) says that when parents and children talk warmly and openly, children tend to have higher self-esteem and do better emotionally and socially. If they’re told they’re superior, they may start to feel they deserve special treatment.
Somewhere in our minds, we have this deep imagination of being the child of one of the biggest stars in the country. But what we do not think is how these individuals actually navigate their lives, growing amid the limelight: is it an advantage or a disadvantage? Recently, Tamil actor Vikram, aka Kennedy John Victor opened up about parenting his children while they were young, revealing that they were not allowed to reveal their father’s identity at school. Vikram was also honest with his son about the other side of fame. Esquire India has described him as practically Tamil cinema royalty. So the aim wasn’t to hide the truth forever. It was to give the children a normal childhood. But why do certain actors choose this life for their children, and what does research say about this? Let’s read further to find out. Research shows that a loving, supportive home helps children feel confident and understand who they are. None of this research is directly associated with celebrity families in particular, but the lesson applies to them too. Children need to feel safe with their parents. They need to be able to ask questions, understand what their family’s situation is, and work out who they are, without feeling weighed down by what the public expects of them. It found that children became more narcissistic when their parents overvalued them, meaning when parents treated them as ‘better’ than other kids. Kids often tend to believe what their parents tell them about themselves. The lead researcher, Eddie Brummelman, gave a simple piece of advice to The Conversation to love your children and show it openly, but don’t tell them they’re better or more deserving than their classmates. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test Get the latest Lifestyle News and more. Download the TOI app.