 on to our next session, Realizing Celebrity. I'll request Jyoti Kamal Ji to welcome our next guest, Ahana Kumra. Ahana Kumra is an Indian feature film and TV actress. She's known for her small screen debut in Yodh where she played Amitabh Bachchan's daughter. A versatile actress, she's praised for her character Leela in Prakash Jha production Let's take under my burqa, directed by Alankrita Srivastava. Let's begin with the session. Over to you, Jyoti Kamal Ji. Thank you, Arshi. Thank you, Ahana, for taking the time out. We were not expecting that you'll be able to make it. But here you are. So thank you so much. You are not somebody who was born into the film industry. You're not like somebody who was from the film industry in terms of family lineage or anything. And yet you kind of chose to get into movies and into the whole clits and glamour of Bollywood. How was your journey? Because you had your ups and downs, you had your initial pitfalls, and here you are, an absolute confident, poised person now who knows the industry in and out. What was your initial experience like? First of all, I'd like to thank you, Jyoti, sir, for having me here. And thank you, Net for Katie. And I'm very delighted to be in Chandigarh. I think I'm back in this absolutely fabulous city after I think three or four years I came pre-Covid because I was doing a show called Kalami Blue, which was with the Indian women's cricket team. And I was in Moga to interview Harmanpreet Kaur and her family. And I was in Chandigarh briefly because this is where she trained and really happy to be back here. So thank you so much. And I'd like to say thank you to Niharika who's sitting right there. She's a friend of mine. Hi guys. Chandigarh is a really beautiful city. I think one of my favourite cities because it's really well planned. And I love coming back here. As actors we are very, very lucky and very fortunate that we live many lives. We travel to many cities. We get to meet so many people. And I was so happy to see the dynamic ladies who are sitting right here with their absolutely wonderful stories. Sometimes I feel, I think we're really lucky that we attend summits like these, that we get to hear such incredible stories because I think in Bombay we live in a bit of a cocoon. It's really nice to sometimes come here and listen to these stories because you actually realise how incredible all of India is and what kind of work people across this country are doing. Coming back to my journey. So no, I'm not from a film family. My mother's a police officer. She's been in the police for 40 years. She's DSP UP police. My father works in a pharmaceutical industry. He used to work for Lupin Laboratories and he lived most of his life in Russia. So I grew up in a very fiercely independent women-oriented home. I have an elder sister who's equally inspiring. And I don't think both of us have ever been brought up like women, like girls. We were always like literally kicked out of the house and be like, So I think right from the word go, I was always, since a child I was doing things that I think most boys were doing. I have played all sorts of sports. I was always thrown into the football team or the swimming team or running team. So I was always out in the mud fighting the boys. So I think that fierce independence comes from there. I came to Bombay in 97 when I was in seven standard. And I finished three years of schooling here. And then I joined this really wonderful place. I don't know if any of you have heard of Prithvi Theatre, which is, yeah. So Prithvi Theatre is my home, like my second home and maybe home to many, many actors in Mumbai because we don't come from film families. We start from theatre. So my start came from theatre. And I joined the Prithvi Theatre. I met Shashi Ji there. He was the first person who ever felicitated me after a theatre workshop of 12 days. And I kind of realized, I think that was, I think I must have been 14. And I was like literally in like these purple color spandex and pigtails and braces and, you know, not knowing what the world of glitz and glamour is because when you don't come from film families, the kind of grooming that I see these young girls, these 15, 14, 12 year old girls have where mothers are like, beta, ye mat karo, yaa kharo chaa jaayi gi, yaa aise mat karo tum kali ho jao gi. We were never told those kind of things because I came from a family where my masses are all police officers. So I've grown up in a koth wali where I saw criminals getting beaten up, where I saw people getting jailed, where I saw like my mother speaking to a criminal or interrogating people in a way that I think very few. So I was never like pampered. So I didn't know it better. So I think I'm not about dhake khaayin before I really, you know, kind of jumped into the film world. I did theatre and I continued to do theatre. And I was really lucky that my first break was with Mr. Bachchan and Anurag Kashyap saw me in a play. And you know, and he was just like, I was at Aram Nagar, which is one of the places where most casting directors are in Mumbai. And I was just offered a role opposite Mr. Bachchan. And that time I didn't know anything about how the film world works. So I think I probably have just been really fortunate with the kind of work that I've been doing. So I don't think like I choose films. I think the cinema that I've been doing has chosen me. You were, like you said, you were from a family where there were a lot of very strong lady police officers. And then you kind of went to Bollywood, you kind of got your big breaks, you made it on your own. But it wasn't like all an easy ride in terms of the fact that it's not as rosy or as clean and clear as one would probably imagine. And that probably was a bit of a bump for you in terms of how all of that played out. Were you kind of prepared to handle that? And coming from a police family, you must have thought that, okay, my mom is a cop, nothing can ever happen to me and nothing can go wrong with me. I mean, I can always take her name. But it wasn't the case. In fact, there was a low phase of your life. What was that about? Well, I guess nobody's ever prepared, especially in the world of glitz and glamour. It all looks very nice and beautiful, but nobody knows that sometimes we put in 48 hours of work. So it's a very difficult world. And I wasn't fully prepared for it because I didn't know. When I came from Lucknow, and I come from a family where everybody's either in a corporate or like is in the armed forces, so you know how it is, like it was always a sad thing. So it was a very straightforward way and path for me, which was kind of paved by my parents and they had a certain vision for me. But when I came to Bombay and I started doing theater, I think that's when my mother realized that, you know, maybe this is what you want to do because I never attended a single lecture in college. My principal, I was like the Ghori in the college, you know, like the one who knows the winning trophy Ghori. I was like that person, you know, my principal Indu Shahani. She would like just let me be. I'd never appear in the blacklist because I was always winning trophies for college. So I think somewhere deep down, everybody around me knew that I wanted to be in, I wanted to act. Does acting mean primarily films or cinema? I don't think so. I think there's also a world of theater, which is what I was very fortunate to have and I still have it because I think even today, when I feel very low and I feel like, okay, you know, what cinema is not really doing the kind of work that I want to do or the kind of cinema I want to be associated with, I go back to theater. So coming to my, the phase that you spoke about, I think all actors go through that because when you have rejections every day of your life, when you're told, you know what, you don't look good. You say it on your face every day, you look fat, you're very fat, you're very tall. Our actors are so small. So there are many, many things that many times when I remember I used to do scenes, my actor was told to give the boy a patla, you know, things like that happen and you get rejected basis, your height, you get rejected basis, the way you look, you get rejected the basis, the way you think or talk. If you have an opinion, you should keep your mouth shut because sometimes that's not appreciated because they don't want women who are fiercely independent. They don't perhaps want women who speak their mind. But there was a phase when I felt that I was not getting the kind of work I wanted to do because I did a very, very interesting film. I did a film called Lipstick Under My Burka which was my first film and that film is about four women in small town. So it was Me Ratna Pataksha, Konkana Sen Sharma and an absolutely wonderful Assamese girl called Plavita. And we shot in Bhopal. The film was produced by Prakash Shah and eventually distributed by Ekta Kapoor and then we had a very long fight with the Supreme Court because they had banned the film in India and the film had already traveled to five countries and I went to attend the first premiere in Tokyo and I still remember I was at the Tokyo Film Festival. We were walking the red carpet and there was Meryl Streep walking right ahead of me which Shinzo Abe who was the then Prime Minister and this was the first time I was attending any premiere of any film that I had ever done in my life. We didn't even know what clothes should we be wearing at a premiere. We didn't have stylists, we didn't have makeup artists, we did our own makeup, we wore whatever clothes that I could get as a market called Manish Market in Andheri and if anybody's aware of Bombay there's a market called Manish Market and I still remember I had got a gown stitched and at the red carpet somebody asked me from the Tokyo media, the Japanese media, they asked me, who are you wearing? You know we are not wearing a Ritu Kumar, I'm not wearing a you know a big brand. At that time I was just like oh I'm wearing Manish Malhotra and then somebody behind was like Malhotra and I'm like no no no like Manish Market you know. I got my own gown stitched. I think like these are the things that we learn and I'm really proud of the fact that although that low phase was there because I didn't think I was getting the kind of cinema when the film premiered I still remember when the film premiered in Tokyo there was spin drop silence so the Japanese audience is not like us where we go like roaring laughter you know Indians are like, they laugh loudly, they cry loudly but that's how we Indians are and I still remember there was spin drop silence and then there was a long line of these women waiting to take photographs with us so they were taking a photograph and there was this one particular lady who came and she just like hugged my director Alankritha Srivatham and she started crying and for the life of me I could not understand what is happening and I was like what what is happening why is this woman crying? So then the Japanese translator told us that that woman told her in Japanese how did you know our story? I could not believe I had goosebumps here I am in Tokyo in one of the most advanced countries of the world and there is this woman who comes to us hugs my director and says how do you know my story our film was made in Bhopal in a small town in India how did that story relate with somebody in Tokyo that's when the penny dropped for me that the stories of women all across the globe are the same whether you are in America whether you are in England you could be in Tokyo you could be anywhere across you could be in Iceland Norway the stories remain the same and that's when I realized that you know what I don't think I have a different story I think women across the board across the country are facing misogyny patriarchy in some way or the other and I think that's given me hope and that's given me strength to be I think the woman that I am today fantastic in factor like you had mentioned this earlier also that these are not stories that are confined to India these are global stories and the fact that you highlighted them and that you had a Japanese come up to you and say that how did you know our story so yeah of course but but the fact is that you emerged from all of this you came out much stronger you went through your low phase that's behind you and I mean what would your advice be what would what would be the lesson because when you were in that low phase you would have probably felt that it's just going to be like this forever now am I going to get out of it at some point in time but now it's the past so now now you have kind of moved on to a confident future so when you look back at that what is the advice that you would like to give people how do you kind of tell them to hold on how do you tell them to be resilient or you tell them to kind of make their way out of that phase that phase will be over it's not something that's going to be forever but how do you convey that message through your own experience through your own lived experience I think the one rule or the one thing that I have always lived by is the show must go on and that is something that I think every artist kind of swears by and life goes on and this too shall pass I think these things I learn every day so I'm when I'm I'm here as an actor but I probably will meet somebody who's from like a different industry altogether and you know I learn something from them and I think the most important thing that we don't do in our lives is that we close ourselves to learning we should not stop learning as people as human beings I can learn from an animal I can learn from a person I can learn from somebody who's you know who's really young I can learn from a mother I can learn from a father there's so many places I can learn from so I don't think we should be close to learning and I think the only advice I will give to anybody who wants to make it in the film industry or to anybody who wants to be in the media industry because this is a very very harsh industry and you may know this because you're in the media and anybody who's in the media knows how harsh and how ruthless and how brutal our industries are we should never stop learning and this too shall pass I think I always believe that the next day is going to bring something wonderful and that happens I think you need to just have that faith and kind of hold on to that there are many times in our industry when I think we've also got very lucky with the OTT I think that's something that I was just going to ask you about that that OTT suddenly is an option now and yeah and when you look at that kind of business now and you look at that whole opportunity is it also kind of moving into that whole film kind of line in terms of that also becoming selective that also having those same lineages or does it still have that freshness to it no I think when the OTT began you're absolutely right when the OTT began I remember I did this one very interesting show called Chukya Giri and that show was on YouTube and Anand Tiwari the guys who've made Bandish Bandits I don't know how many of you all have watched Bandish Bandits so my friend Anand Tiwari who also is a very dear friend who does theater with me he made this absolutely wonderful show called Chukya Giri and I remember I had gone to Baroda for a play and somebody came to me and she was like hey Rathi and I'm just like I just looked around I'm just like is she talking to me you know and I was like how did you where have you seen this and she's like it's on YouTube and I said what really and I'm talking about that time when YouTube was not like YouTube what it is today I'm talking 2016 and and I was like where did you watch this and she was like I watched it on YouTube and I was like really is it that popular so I feel that you know when when OTT began TVF was really small TVF was just doing skits and today look where TVF is we were all doing very interesting shows we were telling very fierce stories and I am very proud to be a part of the OTT because I think I have managed to be a part of some incredible shows like Betal which has been produced by Mr. Shah Rukh Khan and you know and and the show called Marzi which also spoke about violence against a woman's body and I think it was an absolutely wonderful show it was very ahead of its time so there are many many interesting shows that I did and a lot of my friends did and I these are my friends who are doing theater like Jair Deep or for that matter Gulshan or for that matter Jim Sarb you know the guys who all become really popular today Rasika Dughal Rajshri Deshpande these are some incredible names these people would have been nowhere had OTT not come into being a trial by fire would have not been made today Delhi crime would have not been made today anybody remember Shefali Shah for monsoon wedding she was incredible monsoon wedding and then suddenly you see her in Delhi crime and there she goes to win the Emmys and you know and like the shows winning multiple awards you know internationally and then there is a Netflix and then there is an Amazon and then there is a Z and a Sony and everything comes into play but now suddenly we see that the same hierarchy that was happening in cinema is happening in OTT where suddenly all the film stars have suddenly realized that you know what this is a great comeback for me so I'm going to do a show and that show is going to revolve around me and everybody else is going to be like a second lead or a third lead so I think the same pattern that was happening in cinema is now suddenly happening in the OTT so I do see that but does nepotism kind of bother you or you think that like a business person's child might kind of get into business somebody else can kind of take up that same line so why not in the movie business also why is this kind of critically kind of spoken about each time around what should take on it I mean are you okay with it what do you think should it be should it not be this is a deep question and a very difficult one to answer I think okay so coming to the fact that when I was little I remember that in my school I was in Lamarnia girls college and I still remember that in my school whatever my classmates were they were all daughters of doctors and every time I would ask them what do you want to be they would all say doctor and today they are all successful doctors and there are many many like if you come from a business family you can't just leave your business because your fathers your forefathers have taken that kind of pain to become those people to to build an industry to build a name in that industry so I don't see anything wrong with nepotism but does that come in the way of our work yes does that disallow me to put a foot in in the door yes it does does that stop me if I'm going to have a daddy call up a production house or a producer and say hey you know what drop her and take my daughter instead that is a problem I am not at all opposed to the fact that these children should be given opportunities in fact I feel it's tougher for them because when your father or your mother is so successful in an industry that they've probably broken their back to be a part of or be successful in that industry it is very very difficult to be able to build your name and I can tell you at least three or four very very successful film family kids who have not been able to make it in the industry so I feel that opportunity should not be grabbed away from the people who are who call themselves outsiders I still call myself an outsider because I I feel like I'm still trying to figure the industry you know it's not an easy industry to to kind of figure out where you want to put your foot but I feel like nepotism is there it's always going to be there I hope our opportunities are not grabbed away by these daddies papa's paris and you know whatever that I could call them I hope we get equal opportunities and I hope I sincerely hope that the OTT really continues to doing what it started out to do give equal opportunities to actors who have been probably standing in the wings for years waiting for that one that one opportunity that's going to let them shine I'm so good to hear your strong story that was so inspiring thank you so much for being a part of the last creation thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much Hanna thank you Jyoti Kamal ji please stay on the stage I'll now request editor news 18 India and news 18 JKLH to felicitate Ahana Kumbra thank you so much Ahana Jyoti Kamal ji please stay on the stage I'll now request