Bhai Dooj special| I get emotional and protective over my brother: Nia Sharma

This year actor Nia Sharma will have to settle for a virtual one Bhai Dooj celebration when her brother Vinay Sharma, an IT professional from Bengaluru, had only recently visited Mumbai to ring in her birthday “in a grand manner”.

She says, “He often surprises me with gifts; we don’t need an opportunity to give each other a gift. We have a little ritual on Bhai Dooj, in which teeka hota hai, and I give him a nariyal and lots of fruits.

About their relationship, the actor says, “I’m four years younger than him, and growing up we were two lunatics trying to kill each other. But then life happened and things were tough. He took care of me like a father and became the pillar of our family. He made up for the years and the silly, stupid fights we used to have.

Nia Sharma calls her bond with Vinay ‘super strong’: ‘Today he is calmer and more emotionally vulnerable than me. In fact, he has had some health issues in the past year, and that has made me more loving towards him. I think I got closer to him then. I get very emotional and protective over my brother. Fortunately, he is doing very well now.”