The young and the restless

Aisha has a debutant producer, a young director and a couple of fresh faces in its cast. Rhea Kapoor shares her experience of making the film

Bollywood has been betting big on young, fresh talent in recent years. But Aisha, the romantic comedy starring Abhay Deol and Sonam Kapoor which releases on August 6, takes the trend to a different level altogether.

A large proportion of the cast and crew of the film — with the exception of the lead pair — consists of Bollywood debutants, or almost-debutants. The producer is a first-timer, as is the young director; and theatre actress Ira Dubey and model Abhimanyu Singh, who have significant roles in the film, are but one film old.

Rhea Kapoor, the 23-year-old daughter of actor Anil Kapoor, debuts as a film producer with Aisha. She’s a “little nervous,” she confesses, “but a hell of a lot more excited”. Aisha is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, and has Sonam playing the main protagonist — a pig-headed matchmaker who tries to get her friends married off, but has all her plans blow up on her.

The younger Kapoor sibling didn’t exactly aspire to be a producer so young. Having done a course in theatre at New York University, she began working at 21 as assistant to Ayaan Mukherjee, director of Wake Up Sid. “I realised that I wanted to be behind the camera and was quite happy running the show,” she says.

Rajshri Ojha, the film’s director, who conceived of the film while in college, went around for four painful years with her script to various production houses. But one meeting with the Kapoor sisters decided it, and the project was picked by Anil Kapoor Film Company (AKFC). “When Rajshri narrated the script to me and Sona [Sonam] it was an instant hit with us. We discussed the project with dad and he was convinced that AKFC should be producing it.”

Recalling her first day at the shoot, Rhea says, “No one was listening to me. Sonam even tried to bully me.” In fact, while shooting a car sequence with Sonam at a farmhouse in Delhi, the young producer tried to tell everyone about Sonam’s poor driving. “But no one heard me. The result — Sona scraped an expensive Mercedes car and all I could think of was, how will I pay for that?”

Despite all the bumps, Rhea managed to finish shooting Aisha in 67 days and even roped in co-producers such as PVR Films. Ojha, who always aspired to be a film director, credits her producer for managing to finish the shooting before time. “Everything was so methodically scheduled,” she says.

A complete fashionista, Rhea asserts that getting the right costumes for the characters in her film was extremely important to her. So much so that she roped in Christian Dior to be a part of Aisha. “I was told to stick to tried and tested fashion designers, but I didn’t want anything kitsch for my girls. It had to be high fashion, and I got it,” she gloats.

The young ‘creative producer’, as Rhea likes to call herself, is all business when she says, “We will release Aisha with about 500 prints and PVR will distribute the film in international markets as well.” Rhea is keen to produce a few more projects for her home production house before trying her hand at direction. “I am always available for good scripts,” she claims. “I get four-five scripts every day over mail or Twitter and I make sure that they are read.”

She’s not interested in making heavy, intellectual movies that vie for international acclaim and awards. “What’s wrong with fun, commercial films that have a soul? I love Rajkuman Hirani’s work in 3 Idiots. I want to make films that make you feel good,” Rhea concludes.