One of Bollywood's youngest producers learns the ropes

Mumbai, July 17 (IANS) She is one of the youngest producers in Bollywood, an industry that has few active women producers. Sure enough, 23-year-old Rhea Kapoor says she found the job of making "Aisha" challenging and learnt that one has to swallow one's ego to run a project smoothly in the film industry.

"The most difficult part is that you have to take responsibility for everything. If anything goes wrong, it's your fault. You have to swallow your ego a lot of times to balance things and get the work done," Rhea told IANS.

The daughter of actor Anil Kapoor and younger sister of actress Sonam Kapoor, Rhea never planned to get into production.

"It was not that I had planned to get into production. I have done a course in acting (from New York) but when I came back, I realised that being in front of the camera is not something I would want to do.

"Dad heard the script of 'Aisha' and loved it. He then asked me to produce it under our banner because he felt that it's a young, fun- driven film and closer to my age so I will be able to do justice to it," she said.

Based on Jane Austen's novel "Emma", the romantic movie about a high society girl who feels she is naturally gifted in finding love matches will feature Sonam as the matchmaker and Abhay Deol as the guy who falls for the self-confessed spinster. It is set for an Aug 6 release.

The unique thing about "Aisha" is that its director, Rajshree Ojha, too is a woman. If Rhea channelised money into the movie, Rajshree was at the helm of the romantic comedy.

There were reports that the camaraderie between Rhea and Ojha was not ideal.

But Rhea rubbished the reports saying, "There was no rift at all. I don't know where these rumours are coming from."

Asked about Anil Kapoor's involvement in the movie, Rhea said: "Dad gave me a complete free hand on the film. He let me make it the way I wanted to. Definitely he was there when I needed his opinion but he never interfered," she said.

The young producer enjoyed working on the film, but says she is not sure how it will be if she teams up with some actress other than her sister.

"Sonam is the only heroine I have worked with; so I really don't know how it is to work with another actress. We balanced our professional and personal lives and that was a lot of fun.

"But sometimes it used to be confusing because you didn't know that you are talking to Sonam the actress or Sonam the sister. However, one good thing about this arrangement was that even if we said something to each other the other person knew it was only for good," said Rhea.

Would she like to stick to production in the long run or would direct and act as well?

"I like production, but I would definitely like to direct in the next couple of years. But acting is not my piece of cake."

Click the Movie button below for more info:
Aisha