Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - April 2009 - Index

star TREK
Twenty-five yearold
Ayesha Mohan
is having the
time of her life with two
back-to-back releases.
Anurag Kashyap’s
Gulal, in which she stars
opposite K.K. Menon, released
last month and Chris
Smith’s The Pool releases on
April 3.
The Pool is the story of Venkatesh,
a “room boy” at a hotel in Panjim,
Goa. He makes tea, cleans floors,
scrubs toilets, hangs up washing,
and even has a side ‘bijness’ going
with his friend Jhangir – the two
buy plastic bags and then sell
them to shoppers to carry groceries
home.
On his way to and from the
hotel, Venkatesh passes a posh
bungalow with a large pool.
From his perch in a mango tree,
he observes a middle-aged man
(Nana Patekar) and a young
woman (Ayesha Mohan) in the
luxuriant garden that surrounds
the shimmering pool.
Mohan plays Ayesha, Patekar’s
disenchanted daughter,
with a mix of maturity and innocence.
Ayesha, in the movie,
is child-like, but adopts a worldweary
air. She befriends the two
boys and fights with her father.
There is a freshness in her approach,
and a sure-handedness, which
makes hers an exciting debut.
“And I didn’t even start out
wanting to be an actor!” laughs
Mohan, who took her father’s
first name as her last name after
36 Desi News April 2009
he passed away when she was
just nine.
“I was very attached to
dad,” she says quietly.
After completing her BA in
Philosophy from Miranda
House, Delhi, Mohan signed
up for a post-graduate course
in directing and screenwriting
at Sheridan College in Toronto.
“From Mumbai to Oakville
was a jump, I can tell you!” says
Mohan, who now divides her
time between Toronto and
Mumbai.
Ayesha Mohan makes a splash
“Madras Palace is to masala dosa
what Sachin Tendulkar is to cricket.”
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“It was quite scary at first!
You come from a place where
there are so many people to one
where there are hardly any. My
first winter was harsh and it
seemed endless!”
All she wanted to do, she
confesses, was to stay warm
under a blanket and eat.
But she also fell in love with
Toronto.
“Everyone is so nice. Seriously.
Everyone is so polite. When I
go home, everyone seems so
rude in comparison!”
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But back to how the student
of directing and scriptwriting
ended up in front of a
camera.
Mohan was assisting Kashyap
in Gulal when destiny took
things in hand.
“I was in charge of auditions.
One day, a big name
Bollywood actress showed up
for an audition but the person
who was to give her the cues
was unavailable. So there I was,
busy giving her cues for her
audition when Anurag came up
and said, ‘You are auditioning
tomorrow.’ I said, no way, I am
happy with my job, and he said,
in that case, I was fired! I
wondered how it would feel to
audition someone else for the
same role the next day. I wasn’t
sure how that would pan out! I
was also hugely sceptical and
didn’t really think I’d get the
role!”
But she did. And it was
while working in Gulal that
Mohan signed The Pool, which
went on to win the special jury
award at the Sundance Film
Festival 2007.