HT Brunch Cover Story: Three of a feather

Bhagyashree walks in, looking timeless. Thirty-three years have passed since the now 53-year-old real-life princess became the queen of hearts with her film debut as Suman in Maine Pyar Kiya, but she looks just the same. Mention this and Abhimanyu, 32, her actor son, quips: “That is because she has amazing kids like us! We don’t stress her out. That is the secret of her timeless beauty. We deserve the credit!” Happiness could well be the reason for Bhagyashree’s radiance. The actor-mom is here with her two actor kids for a photoshoot, their first together for a magazine, and she’s almost vibrating with pride. After all, she renounced her film career to bring them up and be the mother she thought they deserved. And now here they are, all three of them actors together.

Baby steps

Abhimanyu made his on-screen debut in 2018 with Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota, a Vasan Bala film that created quite a buzz on the festival circuit before garnering a favourable response at the box office. The deliciously whimsical action-comedy was not a conventional star-kid debut film, which was exactly what Abhimanyu wanted. In this, his very first outing, he proved his mettle as an actor and picked up the Filmfare award for best debut—30 years after his mom had earned the very same award for her breakthrough debut.

Avantika, 27, who had once chosen a very different career path, made her debut this year with the ZEE5 webseries, Mithya. Rohan Sippy’s psychological thriller, an adaptation of the British TV show Cheat, saw Avantika unleash her acting prowess as the complex, manipulative, seductive and slightly unhinged Rhea Rajguru.

Bhagyashree has also made a comeback to cinema—she was recently seen in Thalaivii and Radhe Shyam and has a slew of other projects lined up, all at the behest of her children, especially Avantika. But initially, she was apprehensive about her kids being part of an industry she had known only too well from the inside—an industry in which she had experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

“Knowing the ups and downs and hardships of this profession, I didn’t want either of them to land in Bollywood,” says Bhagyashree. “It is an emotionally taxing profession and as their mother, I wanted to protect them from this. I wanted a more secure profession for them. But once they decided on their course, they had my full support and they will always have that. I am very happy with their choice of projects, and especially with the fact that they have pulled them off so well. The roles that they picked were no cakewalk and required them to know the nuances of the craft—either they hit the mark or missed it completely. I don’t think anyone, even people from the industry, can question their knowledge of the craft today. I am really proud that they made those bold choices.”

A path of their own

Neither Abhimanyu nor Avantika asked their mother for help as they started their acting careers.

“They both chalked out their journeys on their own,” says Bhagyashree, literally glowing with pride. “They went for auditions and told me only when they had a project finalised. Then they proved their mettle. I am happy being the wind beneath their wings and seeing them soar.”

But she does admit to being surprised when Avantika told her she had decided to act. “She had done a management course and had been on a very different career path. The acting bug bit her pretty late, but once it did, there was no stopping her. I tried my best to dissuade her because the mother in me really wanted to protect her from the emotional upheavals that come with this profession. But eventually, I relented. It was only when she bagged Mithya that I got to know about it. And it was a negative role! I was not expecting her to pick such a debut! Ideally, you would want to make your first appearance on screen as a heroine, looking pretty and dainty! But Avantika loves a good challenge. Her excitement always overshadows her fear, and that’s precisely what made her pick this role.”

That she wanted to act had come as a surprise to Avantika herself since she had decided very early in her life that she never would.

“In school, if I ever failed to complete my homework, or didn’t do something I was supposed to do, people would say it was because I was an actor’s daughter, because ‘Yeh toh heroine banegi’. They assumed that I was taking things lightly because I would obviously enter films, even when I was simply being lazy,” says Avantika. “These incidents totally put me off the idea, even if I had such an idea to start with, of becoming an actress.”

Avantika’s career choices actually shocked Bhagyashree twice! “Of the two of them, she was the one who had loved performing onstage when she was a kid,” says Bhagyashree. “In fact, when she was in school, I thought she might get into movies. All her friends also believed that she would follow in my footsteps. But she was a brilliant student and was very sure that she wanted to pursue academics. She got herself a scholarship and went to London to finish her studies. So, it was a huge surprise when after all that, she eventually said that she wanted to act. This made me realise that parents can’t really plan anything for their kids. Today’s kids have minds of their own and if they choose their own careers, they will put effort in them without being pushed. I think that is great. They bear the fruit of their decisions as well as the consequences.”

The fame conundrum

Unlike Avantika, Abhimanyu had never thought about acting until suddenly one day, he did.

“We had a very normal childhood. The only time I felt different was when my classmates’ parents recognised my mom. But I had never been on set or to red-carpet events. I was totally shielded from this world until I found myself bang in the middle of it,” he says. “Also, whenever my mom went on shoots—although she did fewer films after I was born—she spent a lot of time away from me. So, for me, films were things that took my mom away from me and I pretty much despised them.”

The behaviour of his mother’s fans when they came across her also put him off the idea of fame. “Even now, I am not comfortable with that part of this profession. I still avoid parties and am not comfortable with interviews… I am still not a fan of fame,” says the Meenakshi Sundereshwar (2021) actor.

So, growing up, Abhimanyu was totally business-minded. “I was a serial entrepreneur. I started working at the age of 15. While dabbling in different ventures, I landed on the sets of Dum Maaro Dum as an assistant director (AD). I was 19 then and the energy of filmmaking just sucked me into the world of cinema and I realised that I wanted to be part of this world. But in what capacity, I wasn’t still sure and so I started research into film careers.”

As he studied the industry, he worked on another film as an AD, Nautanki Saala (2013), and found himself a guide in the form of the film’s hero, Ayushmaan would read lines with him, and during that time, would share valuable insights with him, too.

“I was still a student of finance,” Abhimanyu continues. “During my summer break, I went to New York with the money I had earned and enrolled for a filmmaking and acting course at New York Film Academy. It gave me the clarity I need. I realised that being in front of the camera gives me pure joy… it is like Popeye eating spinach!”

Their mother’s shadow

Bhagyashree had always wanted to study abroad, and since she couldn’t, she was thrilled when Abhimanyu took off for New York.

“But I was definitely not expecting him to choose the New York Film Academy!” she laughs. “In fact, when he went there and later to the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, he didn’t even discuss it with me, he was so angry that I was not being adequately supportive of his career choice.”

Abhimanyu eventually got his mom’s unconditional support but he wanted to make it in his career without her help. “No one knew Abhimanyu Dassani and I never told anyone that I was Bhagyasree’s son,” he says. “I went through regular auditions. A lot of them. In fact, for Mard, I stood in the line from morning to evening for two days but they didn’t let me give an audition. It was only on the third day, when they were calling up martial arts studios to send their students to the auditions, that I got my chance through my trainer. Then I kept auditioning for it for a month and a half!” he reveals.

To his horror, he found that despite refusing to take advantage of being a star kid, he was not spared the disadvantages. Soon he found himself right in the middle of the nepotism debate.

“It didn’t feel nice. You wake up with a hundred DMs abusing you. Also, for me, it is never a clean slate. There is always a certain amount of expectation. But I guess that’s how things are and one needs to accept them and move on. Even if you make one cupcake there will be 10 people trolling you for that,” says Abhimanyu who has two movies, Nikamma and Aankh Micholi, lined up for release this year.

Avantika also went through a lot of auditions but mostly people knew that she was Bhagyashree’s daughter. “I have not been on the other side of being a star kid so I don’t have that experience. But yes, people are nice to you, they will say hi-hello to you,” she says. “However, being Bhagyashree’s daughter or Abhimanyu’s sister didn’t guarantee that I would even land an audition let alone be shortlisted. Some people didn’t even respond to my texts and calls.”

Her take on nepotism is a nuanced one. “I don’t disagree that nepotism exists. There is a curiosity around me because of my mom and my brother. The audience is interested in watching star kids, hence producers find us easier to market. So, for a lot of star kids, it is much easier to get a big debut and get those third and fourth projects. But that is not true for every kid whose parents were actors.”

She pauses for breath and continues: “Also, we tend to club everything under ‘nepotism’ today; it has become a buzzword. I think it is a much more complex issue. Today, the level of competition is such that if you are not really good at your work, you won’t survive for long. It baffles me when people call Alia a product of nepotism. She has proved her mettle as an actor time and again. I think a lot of this is just people finding an issue to take out their frustrations.”

The only real advantage that star kids have, apart from the genes, is that via their parents they have practical knowledge of the world of cinema and how it works, and are better equipped to handle the pressures and challenges since they learn from their parent’s experiences.

In fact, Bhagyashree’s experiences of the viciousness of film magazines—the social media of her time—put her in a good position to help her children through the toxicity of trolls.

“I was all but 20 when I was acting and there was so much written about me in the film magazines, mostly because I left the industry to focus on my family,” she remembers. “More often than not, it was all toxic. I would cry myself to sleep almost every night. There was nothing I could do about it. It came to a point that Himalaya [her husband] actually told me to stop subscribing to film magazines and I did that. I went into a shell and stopped interacting with everyone from the industry… if I didn’t meet anyone, they would have nothing to say about me.”

Though entering this bubble helped her pull herself together, it had its disadvantages too.

“Unfortunately, I lost touch with my friends in the industry, I lost my connections with people and it was sad,” says Bhagyashree. “I tell my kids to learn from my mistakes and not to let people’s opinions have so much impact on them. It is on you to protect yourself. Take constructive criticism and learn from it, but don’t let the critics bog you down.”

Mom’s the word

Ask Abhimanyu and Avantika about their mom’s decision to leave a booming career to be a full-time mom to them, and Abhimanyu says: “I am too close to her to judge her choice, but I am happy that she is back on the sets. I wouldn’t be able to make such a sacrifice.”

“I won’t judge something which was so life-changing. She made that decision herself and has never regretted it. And that’s what is important,” adds Avantika.

But both Abhimanyu and Avantika are elated that their mom has made a comeback. According to Bhagyashree, they were instrumental in getting her back on the sets.

“When Abhimanyu went abroad, I had Avantika at home but when she went for her studies, Abhimanyu had already started working. Avantika would call me every day and ask me to get back to work till the day I finally signed a project,” she says. “My kids are my world and she knew very well that without them I would feel totally lost. I give my kids full credit for my comeback in the industry.”

From HT Brunch, May 14, 2022

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