How Dr Nene found his groove in India
Madhuri Dixit’s decision to marry Dr Shriram Nene in 1999 and move to Denver left many fans heartbroken—but the couple’s journey has come full circle. After spending years in the US, where Nene was a renowned cardiovascular surgeon, the family returned to Mumbai in 2011. Now, Madhuri is opening up about how her husband managed to adapt to life in India after being away for so long.
“He used to come to India as a kid to meet his grandparents,” she recalled in a recent interview with Screen. “But once you move to the higher echelons of education, it becomes very hard to visit. It’d been a big gap that he hadn’t come to India.” Despite the long absence, the transition wasn’t as bumpy as one might expect. The actress reveals Nene dove headfirst into Indian culture, from understanding local nuances to building a second career as a digital health entrepreneur and content creator.
“He’s amazing. Wherever he goes, he’ll get into the culture. He knows everything about everything. That’s what he did when we came back to India. He completely immersed himself,” Madhuri said, adding, “He loves India. He loves being here. He loves people. As you’ve seen on his social media, he’s enthusiastic about everything. He’s a doctor, but he’s also a techie. He loves to travel, cook, and those kinds of things.”
The tech-savvy side of a heart surgeon
While Dr Nene is known for his medical expertise, Madhuri spilled the beans on a lesser-known obsession—cameras. The actress laughed as she shared, “He knows everything about the camera. When photographers come home to click pictures, he’d ask them, ‘Kaun sa lens hai? Did you try that one?’ Even I don’t know so much about cameras, but he does.”
Nene’s passion for technology isn’t just about photography. He stepped away from clinical practice to focus on healthcare innovation. Explaining his motivation, he once said in a video on his YouTube channel, “I could operate on at most three to five patients with open-heart surgery in a day, and maybe 500 patients in a year. It was incredibly rewarding to see patients leave the hospital healthy and to support their families, but when I looked at the world, I thought—there are billions of people. What if healthcare could reach the last mile through media and technology? What if you could put a doctor in everyone’s pocket?”
The decision wasn’t easy for everyone. Nene admitted his parents were initially skeptical. “My parents certainly weren’t happy that I was leaving the prototypical job of a heart surgeon, kind of every Indian’s dream life, with a perfect situation, lots of friends, and being the head of the hospital. But later, when they saw the work I was doing with startups, they actually wanted to invest in them,” he shared.
Why love and family brought them back
Marriage, Madhuri says, completely transformed her life. “A lot of people ask me, ‘How’s life after marriage?’ Before marriage, I was only working. My life started after marriage. That’s when I actually lived. I’m so glad I found him as my life partner, and we have a life together that’s amazing,” she said with a smile.
But the move back wasn’t just about career or romance. Earlier this year, the actress revealed that family ties played a huge role. Appearing on Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast, she shared, “My parents were getting older, and they wanted to come back to India. All my life and career, they were with me, and I didn’t want to leave them alone.”
With both her sons now grown, Madhuri seems to have found her perfect equilibrium—juggling acting, producing, and family life. And if her stories about Dr Nene’s camera-geek moments are anything to go by, the couple is clearly enjoying the ride, lens cap and all.