As compared to most people who spend a chunk of their waking hours traveling or sleeping, I’m pretty sure mine are spent at the movies. If that’s not enough, I talk about the movies so much, people often have to interrupt me and ask me where the love comes from. I have to admit it wasn’t until much later in life that I realized I had privileges other kids didn’t. And what I found normal was actually rare in others’ lives. Dad took us to watch movies every Friday night. We always had the best seats in the house despite never having stood at a box office to buy tickets. Everyone from the manager to the peon greeted him. Most Wednesdays or Thursdays were spent at trial shows. The movie hardly ever started until we had arrived. In fact, I spent birthdays screening to-be-released movies for my friends and handing them cassettes and CDs as return gifts. While other parents were probably taking their children on factory tours, my dad was arranging for tours of movie sets, sound studios, cassette factories, CD factories and the like. I can’t even recount all the lessons he shared with us.
With the help of pictures I could rustle up, I’ve shared some funny perks of being my dad’s daughter. On a school evening, my dad took me to meet a real live tiger and it wasn’t at the zoo. The tiger actually played a part in the climax of a film my dad was producing. Another time, relatives who’d flown in from London requested to meet Shah Rukh Khan and some hours later, we were at Film City meeting him. I didn’t approve of his smoking habit because that bothered me the most. Little did I know, he was a superstar. Another night, new sets of friends wanted to meet Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel post the success of Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai. Of course, dad arranged for it and we saw Hrithik’s much talked about thumb. One night, dad took us to a movie set and we bumped into Govinda. He, of course, was making a classic fashion statement for the song that was being shot on location.
The funniest experience was spot boys addressing me when I was covering activity on a movie set for Filmfare. And then, dad found out Suniel Shetty was part of the cast and they were discussing my curfew!
Years ago, we couldn’t even go to an amusement park without becoming a part of the promotional activity for dad’s next film. A child actor, Omkar Kapoor played a rather important part and we jumped on to the bus to help him publicize the movie.
Of course, the best memory was to wake up on a Sunday morning and rush to Film City and walk on to a random set and pose as extras. It was hilarious.
Sometimes, actors who play dads in the movies wanted to adopt me. But I preferred my own dad. 🙂
I love my dad for introducing me to a world I love so much! We still discuss movies all the time. I’d love to know the world your dad introduced you to. Don’t be shy to share. 😉