She was the first wife of Sanjay Dutt Richa Sharma who passed away in 1996. At that time, Sanjay and Richa’s daughter Trishala was just 8 years old. In a recent interview, Trisha opened up about her mother’s death after being diagnosed with brain cancer and how it affected her. After her mother’s death, Trishala was raised in New York by her maternal grandparents. While Sanjay remained busy with his film career in India, she often traveled to spend time with him.In a recent interview, Trishala recalled that her struggles with bullying began very early in her childhood, especially because of her Indian identity. “I had a lot of trouble and a lot of teasing from the kids around me because I was a kid at the time, and I didn’t have a safe place,” he said in an interview on the Inside Thoughts Out Loud YouTube channel. As I entered middle school, things became more difficult after gaining weight. By high school, things escalated even more as his classmates became aware of his famous family background. Reflecting on that time, Trishala admitted that she often felt isolated and wished she had emotional support during those years. She said she had “no one to lean on” and wished she had “someone to talk to when I was younger”.Trishala also revisited the painful chapter of losing her mother. Richa Sharma passed away in 1996 after battling brain cancer, leaving Trishala without one of the most important figures in her life. Sharing details about her mother’s illness, she said, “My mother died in 1996 when I was 8 years old, and she died of a brain tumor. She was diagnosed in 1989. When they found out, it was already stage 4. This type of brain cancer is one of the most deadly and aggressive human cancers.“During that difficult time, Sanjay Dutt was balancing his acting commitments in India while trying to support his family in the United States. As Trishala explained, “Dad was splitting between India and the US. He was going back and forth because he was working, and it was difficult for him to stay here for the whole deal, besides being an actor back home.”Richa received treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the same hospital where Sanjay’s mother, Nargis Dutt, received treatment before her death. Although Richa initially recovered in New York, her health once again declined after she returned to Mumbai.As tragedy unfolded around her, Trishala was seeking comfort in food. She revealed that emotional eating led to weight-related struggles. “When I was young and my mother was going through cancer, I developed a weight problem because I turned to food for comfort,” she shared.She also faced judgment because she didn’t match public expectations of what a celebrity’s daughter should look like. “People think that if you’re a celebrity’s daughter, you have to look a certain way and I didn’t look like Sanjay Dutt’s daughter,” she said.Trishala shared that visiting India in her childhood often took away her feeling from the constant paparazzi attention. Repeatedly taking pictures brought him unwanted scrutiny and harsh remarks, which took a toll on him. “When I was little, so many things were written about me, people left bad comments,” he recalls. Reflecting on how those experiences shaped her, she added, “No one has a thicker skin than me because I’ve seen it all at a very young age.“For those who don’t know, Sanjay Dutt battled substance abuse in the 1970s and 1980s, but turned things around after seeking treatment at a rehab center in the mid-1980s. It was at this stage that he met actress Richa Sharma. The two got married in New York in 1987 and became parents to Trishala a year later. However, their happiness was overshadowed when Richa was diagnosed with brain cancer soon after.
