Akshay Kumar recently revealed that his 23-year-old son Aarav has no interest in cinema or acting. Instead, the gentle Aarav has chosen to go into fashion designing, earning, according to his father, a paltry Rs 4,500 per month, travelling to far off villages to learn fabric designing.
It is not a life one would associate with a youngster whose father earns Rs 120 crores per project.
But that is the way it is.
Says Shabana Azmi, “I knew I was going to be an actor like my mother (the legendary theatre and film actress Shaukat Azmi) from a very young age. My brother Baba, on the other hand, chose to be a cinematographer. He had no interest whatsoever in facing the camera. Aisa hota hai (it happens). Anil Kapoor’s elder daughter Rhea never had any interest in being an actor. She chose to be a producer. While Sonam was a performer from childhood.”
Mahesh Bhatt tells an interesting story about his two daughters from Soni Razdan, Shaheen and Alia Bhatt. “My two daughters always had their roles cut out from childhood. The elder Shaheen had no interest in acting. While Alia was a born actress. We often caught her posing and making faces in front of the mirror. Like Rishi Kapoor, she would run to the mirror whenever she cried to see how the tears flowed.”
It is not always the lineage that counts. Star-children don’t always follow their parents into the entertainment industry. Nysa Devgan, daughter of actors Ajay Devgn and Kajol has a bachelor’s degree in International Hospitality. Nysa has zero interest in being an actress.
Actress Raveena and producer Anil Thadani’s daughter Rasha Thadani rushed to face the camera the moment she got an offer. However their son Ranbir shows no interest in cinema or acting.
“It is a myth that children of actors become actors. Our son Abhishek decided he wanted to be an actor after he completed his studies. Our daughter Shweta showed no interest in acting. People believe we stopped her from following our profession. That isn’t true at all. I still believe Shweta is the best actor in our family,” says Jaya Bachchan whose grandchild Agastya Nanda is an actor.
But Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan’s beautiful grand-daughter Navya Naveli has chosen not to follow the family profession, although producers have been breaking down the Bachchans’ gate to sign Navya.
“It is all destiny. My son Tiger was born for the camera whereas my daughter Krishna has other interests removed from cinema. To each his or her own. We can’t tell our children what to do,” says Jackie Shroff.
Shah Rukh Khan’s handsome son Aryan continues to get a truckload of acting offers. Karan Johar wants to launch him since the past four years. But Khan Jr has opted to be a filmmaker. His reason for avoiding his father’s profession is simple: no matter how good he is in front of the camera he would always be compared unfavourably with his father.
Ask Abhishek Bachchan.