What is there to read about the memoirs of the daughter of a superstar? I opened “Standing on an Apple Box” (HarperCollins) with a kind of apprehension that we often reserve for the progeny of super achievers. Oh! they get everything on the platter. But a few pages into the diary of Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth Dhanush and one realises that it is the account of an insider who has the guts to see the working of film industry as a neutral observer with disarming honesty. Sitting on the apple box or moving on a trolley, here is a ringside view of a daughter who evaluates the decisions that her father and mother made without getting starry-eyed or irreverent. In Delhi for the launch, Aishwaryaa likes us to believe it just happened. “It was not planned at all. I used to write but because of marriage, kids and work, your hobbies often take a back seat. Of late, friends started pushing me to start a blog. I am not tech-savvy at all. I don’t change my phones often, I don’t change my laptops often. Uploading blogs is like Greek and Latin to me. When I started writing, thoughts started flowing well. It’s not a autobiography, it is likes pages from diary. I wanted it to be that way. It makes it more real.”
Of course, but what catches the eye is the surreal experience of her father in his childhood, his first brush with spiritualism that has kept him rooted all through his glittering career. “He draws a very beautiful balance between being real and being a superstar on screen. He doesn’t let the person on screen affect him in real life, which is his biggest strength. He has bifurcated both very clearly and that’s why people relate to him.”
Soon we get to know he doesn’t mind sporting a lungi in Paris and how he made a fashion statement out of it for his daughter. “I think it reflects his confidence in whatever you are. He taught us to be confident in our skin. That when things go wrong, there is always a positive side to it.” It is followed by an interesting chapter on how the superhuman Rajinikanth became the protective father on the 18th birthday of Aishwaryaa. She wanted to celebrate it in a nightclub and the father decided to take her to one. “It is actually a very nice conflict between a father actually wanting to fulfil a daughter’s wish and be a protective father at the same time. Again he strikes a nice balance. It is cute in a way because he wanted to do both.”
In times of social media, Aishwaryaa reflects on how much craze was there to know about the personal life of Rajinikanth when she was young. She narrates an instance how a lady came home to figure out if there is a link between Rajinikanth’s support for anti-polio drive and his insistence on keeping his daughters out of media glare. “My mother had beautifully kept us away. Till we were big enough to understand, we were kept away from the media and limelight. That ensured that we had a very normal childhood.” She must have missed her father during those days. “We are making up for it now. We travel a lot together. It is not about when you spend the time, it is about getting to spend the time.”
At a time when many young filmmakers look back at the golden age of cinema as unprofessional, Aishwaryaa opens a window to the days when creativity rhymed with simplicity and a mere handshake was as good as a contract. “That era deserves lot of respect. A lot of artistes back then used to sit outside vanity vans and be themselves. Today, it has changed because technology has made it impossible. There are camera phones everywhere. Today, you have to stay inside because of privacy. Certain things which were considered luxury have become necessity. You can’t blame anybody for what they do but at the end of the day it all depends on the team you work with. It depends on the people who get together to create a new idea.”
She captures the transition really well through the story of an unnamed producer who used to give creative inputs to his directors. One day he hired a young upcoming director who refused to take his advice. The producer smiled and launched another film as director to show that he has it in him. Both films worked. “At that time it was a collective and wholesome process. These days it is completely bifurcated. People feel if you delegate responsibilities, work happens faster.” Would people decode the name of the producer? “I don’t know but I think it is difficult,” smiles Aishwaryaa.
Recently, Aishwaryaa was appointed UN Women’s Advocate for gender equality. “I consider it is a great responsibility that the UN thinks that my voice can make a change. Even if I make five women empowered or the change the way they think or for that matter give them the courage to express what they feel, I think I have accomplished the task I have been entrusted with. I think there is gender equality. There is only a need to make people aware of it. Feminism is not a bad word. It is not about hating man, it is about respecting women.”
Perhaps, it is easier said than done for in film industries across the country, gender disparity is still a reality. “I beg to differ,” counters Aishwaryaa. “It was true more than a decade back. I have made two films. 10 years back it was almost impossible. I think we are getting there.” Isn’t she privileged? “Not really. The minute you approach an artist you are told you have artists at home, why do you want me. The moment you approach a producer, you are told why do you need money from outside. We have women who are editors, we have women who are cinematographers, women are doing multifarious things in the industry today. We are moving forward.”
She is right for the book makes us aware of the times when she could not pursue law because her mother didn’t let her go to another city because of security concerns. “She had her reasons. Today, being a mother myself I could understand her reasons. She thought more of my safety than allowing me to do what I wanted to do. It hurts but I have moved on. I am doing through correspondence now,” shares Aishwaryaa.
Coming to Dhanush, who is directing his first film, we get to know that the couple’s approach to cinema is different. “It is nice that we are different otherwise we would have been making one kind of films. I am still new, I still have a lot more to learn. I have to try different genres to know which genre I am good at. My first film was a serious love story, my second film was an adventure heist. Now I am writing another one where I want to be as real as possible. I am still exploring here, in contrast, Dhanush knows exactly what he wants to do.”
Sometimes too much clarity is also troublesome! “I don’t think so. It is nice to be that clear. He makes life easier for me,” chuckles Aishwaryaa
Meanwhile, the difficult work continues. She has finished an hour-long documentary, Cinema veeran on stuntmen in film industry. “It is about the hardships that a stunt man goes through in the industry. How they lose limbs and sometimes lives as well. It is a tribute to them.” The recent incident in Bangalore, where two stuntmen drowned make it all them more relevant. “I have appealed to the government to introduce a category for stuntmen in the National Awards. I believe it will be introduced next year.” The documentary is part of three-part series. “The next two will focus on background dancers and junior artists. Coming form the industry this is a small thing that I could do for them.” Perhaps, she has knack for exploring what other’s miss. Take the title, which almost becomes a metaphor. “I would say, yes. An apple box is a ubiquitous item on a film set but not many know about it. From increasing the height of an actor to that of camera, it is a handy tool to have. It is there but people don’t talk about it. I wanted to generate curiosity.”
Doughty daughters
Like their fathers, Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Aishwarya are also close to each other. Shweta, who has written the foreword, describes it as the story of a normal girl growing in a not-so-normal home. “We relate to each other. I see lot of similarities in our lives and how we see our fathers. I am happy and extremely grateful that we are good family friends and wish well for each other,” says Aishwaryaa picking Hum as her favourite Hindi film of the master.
