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Showman's daughter
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In Hyderabad on a short visit, Meghna Ghai reveals how she is giving shape to her father Subhash Ghai's dream project
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In India, to be an actress you should be a good dancer. But I have two left feet.
IN FOCUS Film-making was never Meghna Ghai's cup of tea Photo: K. Gajendran
Meghna Ghai-Puri was all of 16 when she returned from the United Kingdom and decided to get into the think of things in Bollywood. She assisted her famous father, film-maker and producer Subhash Ghai for two schedules of Pardes. By the end of it, she realised she wasn't cut out for film-making. Strong business acumen is what she had and went on to hone the same.
A cherished dream
Today, Meghna is a part of the film industry, but on her own terms. She is spearheading her dad's pet project, Whistling Woods International — the film institute. "My father graduated from the film institute at Pune but when he came to Mumbai, he found that the city didn't even have a good library on cinema. More than a decade ago he decided that he would set up an institute; it's taken this long for it to materialise. We've been working on this project for the last five years. This is a dream come true," she says about the institute that will open in July. Meghna is on a mission to draw the best of talents from all over the country and was in Hyderabad to visit the Indian School of Business.
She grew up in a film family, but was never inclined to take up acting. She says, "In India, to be an actress you should be a good dancer. But I have two left feet. Jokes apart, when you see the glamour world from close quarters you are not overwhelmed by it. Many actors are in the business of acting because they know they are good at it. Some others join the fray thinking they have the potential."
Roping in the best
An ardent fan of her dad's work, she says, "He works with so much passion that it's impossible for me to tell him anything negative about his films."
While in the UK, Meghna met Rahul Puri, whom she married three years ago. "He had no connection with the film industry. But today, he looks after the finance for Mukta Arts for films like Iqbal." Speaking of Iqbal, she says, "We want to make more Iqbals and for that, we'll be tapping into talent from our film school." The film school, she says, has roped in actors, film-makers and technicians to be part of the faculty.
"Naseeruddin Shah will head the acting department. We also have people like Shabana Azmi, Shyam Benegal and cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran on board. The library will have books on international art and literature and movies from all over the world. All of this will be digitised such that if Naseeruddin Shah wants to show a film clip, he would just search the database from his laptop, play the clip in the classroom and add his own notes."
On a concluding note, Meghna says, "If I had begun as a film-maker, I would have followed the foot steps of people who have 30-40 years of experience. But with this project, I got to do things from scratch."
SANGEETHA DEVI. K
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