Anil Kapoor is a blessed man. He has got two beautiful and intelligent daughters — girls with ample gumption, giggle and gusto. If you've stopped sighing over Sonam Kapoor, wait till you meet Rhea Kapoor. The younger of the two sisters, she's probably Bollywood's youngest film producer at 23, débuting with their home production “Aisha”, based on Jane Austen's “Emma”. And boy, can she talk!
A lean, mean woman Hindi film producer, educated in theatre in New York with a gift of the gab is a rarity. The country is sure warming up to a new generation in Bollywood that speaks its mind (expletives included), without trying to put on any “appropriate” and fabricated image. In Bangalore for the promotion of “Aisha” with most of the cast, including the film's lead-and-sister Sonam, the team bubbled over the PVR auditorium with genuine bonhomie.
“I was 21 when I started,” Rhea points out her beginnings in the industry, “I was obviously retarded and foolish (laughs) …but when this project came up, dad thought I would be able to make it better. You tend to take more risks when you're younger, so that's good. All I told myself was ‘I'm going to make a kickass film',” And how! “Aisha” has drummed up a whole lot of curiosity with its almost all-woman casting coup on screen and behind it. Rhea volubly repeats that she's not made for a presence in front of the camera. “I become a caterpillar in front of the camera. My limbs don't know what to do. I mean, I can't even sit properly in this dress now as your photographer clicks away,” she says, shuffling her legs and smoothing out her little beige dress. For good measure, she adds: “I've got Anil Kapoor's face, you know, the chubby face. I don't look good in photographs… I'm not comfortable marketing myself.”
The first-time producer was scared to befriend her cast and crew. “Then they won't listen to me,” she thought. “But you can't go on the sets and act like you know everything, because then people will think you're a jerk.” She also says a whole host of things in between, but she talks so fast, I miss the train.
Rhea becomes the third generation in her family to be producer. Her grandfather was, and her father set up the Anil Kapoor Film Company that made the critically acclaimed “Gandhi My Father”. With Sridevi for an aunt, and Boney Kapoor for an uncle, and the household immersed into the filmi world, was her entry into filmdom inevitable? “This is my vision of a family business. Why wouldn't I go into it? It is fun! The reality is that when you grow up around something, it is in your blood and is dear to you. I love performing arts; I love the whole process. Acting — that's not my vibe. But producing gives me the ability to learn and do everything in a film. I love marketing,” she grins.
Anil Kapoor hasn't had a particularly successful run as producer. Didn't that deter her or did it challenge her? Rhea makes it very clear that the father and daughter work independent of each other. The diplomatic daughter says: “My scene is different. Even my office is different. My idea or model of making films is very different from my father's — I wouldn't go beyond a budget of Rs. 30 crore. My dad's and my sensibilities differ.” She also has the ability to coolly laugh off some of her dad's box-office bombers.
The newbie producer also believes she's good with her money. “I'm not going to say I'm modest with my money but I work and prep hard enough for it to show. ‘Aisha's a modestly budgeted film.” I ask: “30 crore?” and she keeps asking me to “go lower” till we settle down on an implausible Rs. 15 crore. “But from what you've seen of the film, doesn't it look like a 30-crore budget? I know how to make a 30 rupees vase look like it cost 300!,” she grins with satisfaction. I mean, I've read that she's shopped in New York for the entire cast's wardrobe! And the Kapoor sisters have a veritable reputation of being Bollywood's classiest and sassiest fashionistas.
Is she the producer who gives her team rope or is she the whip-wielding kind? “I do both…at some point every one needs to be whipped!” she laughs. “But seriously, if they like you, they'll work well for you. You need to have your values right and be honest.” Rhea also made sure she had a grounding behind the scenes of a film by starting off as a director's assistant (DA) on the film “Wake Up Sid”. Sonam had assisted Sanjay Leela Bhansali before turning actress. Was the assistantship part of their work plan? “Everyone who wants to be in films should work as a DA or an AD (assistant director; yes there's a difference). You will know every single thing that goes into a shoot. If there's a scene of a hero sitting at the table and writing, it's not just that — it's about the angle the table is placed in, which way his chair is kept, what kind of chair, what pen he's holding, what kind of ink, how he's holding it, how he sits, which way he's looking… it's ridiculous, but it makes you have more respect for the medium,” she rattles off breathlessly.
I've so run out of words by now, I smile meekly and get up.
