Amisha Patel & Asha Patel Interview
By Kavita Chhibber
Petite
and pretty Amisha Patel is as unfilmi as they come. The grand daughter
of famous lawyer Rajni Patel, Amisha aced her way through academics
winning a gold medal in economics at Tufts university before the acting
bug bit and she catapulted to fame with the huge blockbuster Kaho na
Pyar Hai with Hritik Roshan.
While
there were whispers that it was Hritik who was the showstopper in the
film, and Amisha rested on his laurels, she silenced critics by her
mind-blowing performance as Sakina in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Not only did
she look breathtakingly beautiful sans makeup, she carried the very
tough role with grace, dignity and sensitivity. The movie ruffled
political and religious feathers but went on to become one of the
biggest hits in Bollywood cinema.
Amisha’s mother Asha Patel
could probably herself give quite a few bollywood actresses a run for
their money. Born and raised in London, the only sister among five
brothers, Asha is perhaps even more beautiful and doesn’t look like a
mother of two kids in their twenties.
Asha Patel says she grew
up in an elite pampered atmosphere abroad and met her husband as a
teenager while visiting India. For him it was love at first sight, but
Asha laughs and says as a Sindhi Punjabi she was not sure that she would
fit into a Gujarati family. Today not only has she made a success of a
marriage she ventured into at 19, she is with and behind Amisha, every
step of the way to help her fulfill her creative potential. In an
exclusive with Little India, both mother and daughter talk about what it
takes to make it work in a world that is so alien to what they grew up
in.
Academics to Acting-quite a switch from being cerebral to being on celluloid! How did that happen?
Asha:
Yes Amisha was always an honors student throughout and then went to
Tufts University to study bio-genetics, but later switched in her 3rd
year to economics. Bio-genetics did not really have much scope in those
years in India. Even before she left, Rakesh Roshan who is a family
friend, had been telling my husband “let me launch your daughter.” Feroz
Khan’s daughter Leila also used to call me and say Asha can you get
Amisha back so we can launch her with my brother Fardeen in his debut
film. I said, No way, let her graduate. Besides, I do not think she
belongs in the film industry. Little was I to know!
Amisha: Yes, I
was always academically inclined, but I had learnt bharatnatyam, acted
in and choreographed plays while in school. I was also very fascinated
by biology and genetics, DNA, chromosome decoding etc and decided to
study biogenetics at Tufts. I did realize midway that not only would
this require years of studying and then research, there was also no
future in India and that coming from a family which had academics and
business as its background, majoring in economics was a better choice.
I
was very pleasantly surprised by the education system here. In India,
all you are taught to do is mug, mug, and mug and spit it all out on the
day of the exam. Here they teach you to think for yourself, bring new
thoughts, new ideas to the table, even if it goes against what they have
been teaching. Subhash Chandra Bose’s grand son was my professor in a
lot of my political and international relations classes and as a result I
had a first hand information to the freedom struggle and how when
Subash Chandra Bose and his colleagues escaped he was a young lad
driving the getaway vehicle. I had not learnt about India and India’s
freedom struggle in India, the way he taught me at Tufts.
Being
exposed to such a multi cultural environment was so mentally and
intellectually stimulating; it really helped me grow in so many
different ways. I learnt so much about other cultures and in turn taught
them about Indian culture.
Asha: Amisha would bring people to
India, including her old professor to give them a first hand view of her
country. She is very passionate about India and never ever thought
about settling down here.
What myths did you shatter about India and Indians?
Amisha:
It was interesting that people thought I was from an Indian tribe and
asked how I came to USA. I told them it was on a flying carpet and some
of them swallowed that. To others I said I rowed all the way by myself
in a boat and they swallowed that as well. They would say things like,
do you really have toilet paper? Don’t you just dig holes and cover it
up afterwards?
I once took an America friend to India and we were
waiting at Delhi airport to catch a connecting flight to Bombay, when
she said oh is the Bangkok Palace here? I said no it is in Bangkok,
which is in Thailand. Some of them even thought Texas was a nomadic
land. When they have such little knowledge about their own states, I
should not have been surprised by their ignorance about India.
I
started various religious and cultural festivities like Holi and Diwali.
I taught Bharatnatyam, Hindi to some foreign students and at the end of
it made them watch Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and they could actually
comprehend a lot of it. I also stopped at various points to explain what
certain rituals meant in the film.
I also took back a model based on
Indian architecture back to USA depicting a mosque, a temple, and
India’s caste system, and among three papers, I had to submit on
religion I went and asked my professor if I could present one of them in
dance form.
I am a big fan of Jagjit Singh and there is a ghazal
titled “Sar Jhukaoge toh pathar devta ho jayega( If you lower your head
in prayer, stone will turn into God) and I choreographed, translated
each line and danced to the song. Not only did I get a straight A, my
professor invited me frequently as a guest lecturer to perform the same
dance. I was so happy to be able to share that aspect of my culture with
others.
So
after such a brilliant academic career, you returned to India, and
worked in a firm and with your father. Was the acting bug simmering
underneath?
Asha: It was Subash Chandra’s Bose’s grandson
who saw one of her dance performances and said what are you doing in
academics? You should go home and give Madhuri Dixit a run for her
money? Amisha would also perform for Jagjit Singh during his concerts in
the USA, before 4-5000 people. He is so fond of her and every time his
new CD comes out the first copy is always autographed and sent to her.
She was so passionate about her dance, the plays she put up that I told
my husband I wouldn’t be surprised if she returns from USA and tells you
she wants to be in films. He was aghast and said you are crazy, to even
think like that. She is such a brilliant girl. How can she ever think
of being in films?Amisha: It is true that my professor told me
to get into films , but I never took it seriously. I knew I would have
to get back and do something academically or intellectually oriented,
but at a subconscious level, I knew I liked the creativity, the
performing arts, the lime light and being on stage.When I did tell my
folks all hell broke loose!
Asha: It was tough, even my son who
was at UTA studying business and finance, called and said how you could
even think of letting her act in films. Amisha said mom it will be only
one film. I guess moms usually give in first and I did too. Since Rakesh
Roshan and his wife were close friends I felt very comfortable. Amisha
even stayed at their house often while shooting for the film. When I did
finally see her on screen the first time, I was in tears and I still
tear up. Of course, now my son is also going to act in films and when I
reminded him of his comments to
Amisha, he said nonchalantly, oh, I am a guy!I can do whatever I want!!
Amisha:
Dad is very conservative to this day. He had a hard time with the scene
where I roll in the hay with Sunny. He hates to see me in anything but
saris and salwar kameez. As a child if I wore a skirt and a halter-top,
he would get a scissor and cut the clothes to shreds! But I think he is a
little more chilled out now!
I
know you signed Gadar before Kaho Na Pyar Hai. The latter, and all the
other films you have done so far, must have been a cake walk compared to
Gadar. You had quite a tough role, that of a Muslim girl, from an elite
family, cocooned, mollycoddled and protected who falls in love with a
much older, uneducated Jat. It was also set against the backdrop of the
freedom movemen, the Hindu Muslim, riots, the India Pakistani
sentiments. How did you prepare for Gadar?
Amisha: I took my
discipline of education and knowledge to it. I read up a lot on Islam,
read parts of the Koran, went to a mosque to see how they prayed. All
the scenes were tough. I had to play a young woman who had all the grace
and softness that Muslim girls have. If you read the body language, you
will notice that Muslim girls are softer and not loud or bold like
North Indian girls can be. Yet I had to show that underlying steel that I
was made of, to enable me to defy my father, and yet not be offensive. I
had also to play a mother. In fact on the first day of the shooting we
started with this very tough scene where Sakina, the character I play,
discovers it is her father who has tampered with her husband’s visa.
Sakina was a strong character who fought against an entire nation to
preserve her love at a time when even marrying outside your community
was a no, no. I was so obsessed with the character that Sakina became
Amisha, Amisha became Sakina, and I could not tell them apart. There was
a scene when after the riots I see my father’s watch and realize he is
dead, I run out of the railway station crying. I was so into the
character that once I started crying I couldn’t stop — two hours later I
was still sobbing hysterically, the shooting came to a halt, and they
had to keep giving me glucose and try to calm me down. For most of the
emotional scenes, I didn’t use glycerin, the tears came naturally.
Even
after Gadar got over, I was still talking like Sakina on other sets!
“Humen ye de dijiye-and they would correct me and say “ the dialogue
says-mujhe and not humen!”
Were you surprised at the political and religious furor over the film?
Amisha:
I was expecting it. People just need anything to talk about. There was
nothing in the film to affect the religious sentiments. It was about the
fight of a couple in love against an entire country that frowned upon
that love. It was evident that all Sunny Deol wants is to be united with
his wife. He never raises his hand on her father; in a usual Sunny film
he would have thrashed the daylights out of the villain whoever it may
have been. For a sardar whose entire family was brutally wiped out by
the Muslims, to not raise his hands is to show that love conquers all
hatred.
I think frankly that you could read whatever you want to read
into the film. Is it a story about love for your family, love for your
country, a revolution. Eventually what seems to have touched the hearts
of most people was the love story. Ironically, because a few people who
were a case of sour grapes raved and ranted, it helped Gadar become the
greatest hit in Bollywood, surpassing Lagaan and others, so I’m very
grateful to all those people who whined!
So what is next on the cards?
Amisha:
I am really excited about Zameer with Ajay Devgun. It’s about a spoilt
motherless girl who falls in love with her college professor, and can’t
take rejection. She creates some very negative situations as a result
and ends up finally understanding and making a huge sacrifice. It is a
wonderful role that has given me a wide scope to act. While I have
really not learnt much from my directors I have learnt a lot about
acting and life from the characters I have played and my costars, and
through surviving in this industry.
What has surprised you as you look back?
Asha:
That this is such a cutthroat place. We are not a filmy family. To this
day, we have no idea how to promote Amisha. I have never had free trial
shows of her films for my friends, like others. They think I’m stupid
because I buy tickets and take them to see the movie in theaters. Even
for these stage shows, I have gone to the box office and purchased
tickets for my friends and relatives. I just cannot go and ask people
for favors. I think she is still here because she works very very hard,
is very conscientious and sincere. She has given two major hits in the
south along with Kaho Na Pyaar Hai and Gadar.and it is because she is so
conscientious and gives her best. Even in school till she graduated she
had 100 percent attendance.
Amisha: Yes, I was really stunned
that there is so much hypocrisy, manipulation and double standards. I
came into this industry with grand notions of creative cinema,
fulfilling my potential as an actress and dancer. I realized very soon
that at the end of the day it is just cutthroat business. A lot of time,
the casting is done more out of network, or if the hero likes you or
someone is having an affair. I have seen people walk away with films
others deserved to be in or had been promised because of manipulations. I
have survived because mom taught me there is a code of conduct one must
always follow. She has said do your work with dignity and ethically.
Morality and self-respect are things that money can’t buy. So I guess I
am still living in Disneyland, but I think I am doing just fine.
