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Twinkle, twinkle little star

Ayesha, who recently won the Best Supporting Artist award at IIFA, talks to Deepa H Ramakrishan about life after "Black"

PHOTO: T. SINGARAVELOU

"BLACK" BEAUTY Ayesha Kapur

If you catch Ayesha Kapur on the farm, she would start talking about her horses Estigon and Opaline passionately. Standing beside the 600-kilo animals, she pets and pats them as if they were puppies.

Ayesha has just returned from Dubai, after receiving the IIFA award for the Best Supporting Artist for her role in Sanjay Leela Bansali's "Black". "It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. But I was kind of nervous when I had to do an act, a small scene with Amitabh and also with a dancer," she says of the mega event. This is the seventh award she has received for the role of the young Michelle McNally, a deaf, mute and blind girl. She has won the BBC Asian Network Award, Pogo award, Star Dust Award, Screen, Apsara and Zee Cine Award. And they all proudly sit on the shelf at her home in Auroville, near Pondicherry. On what it is to be a star and be recognised, Ayesha matter-of-factly says that she is known more in North India. "In Pondicherry, I am like any other girl, even among my friends who have seen the movie, I am just Ayesha." She is studying in Standard VI at Transition School.

Star status

Talking about her daughter's achievements, Jacqueline Kapur says, "Post-`Black', Ayesha is a star but we don't treat her like one at home. It feels great that she has won many awards and I am proud of her. She has worked really hard to excel in the role."

Her father Dilip Kapur was first reluctant to let her act because he wanted Ayesha to concentrate on her studies.

"He doesn't want me to do too many films. If I get a good role then may be I would take a short break from school. When I grow up I want to go to America to study. I guess I will study what it takes to become a writer," says Ayesha.

The young girl likes English and arts and crafts, reads fantasies and writes short stories. "I write stories about people and happenings. Not many about animals though," she adds. She doesn't like Maths because she isn't very good at it.

"The film has taught me to understand the problems of differently abled children. These days I spend time with some such children. One of them, Lakshmi, who is visually impaired, is my good friend. I bring Lakshmi and her friends to the riding school and let them touch and rub the horses. It's therapeutic for them," says Ayesha.

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