Mrs Funnybones

Twinkle Khanna, producer, on films, books, and laughter

Q: You recently turned producer. Did your husband, Akshay, give you a hard time on the set of Padman?

A: He’s the one having a tough time. In fact, when I asked him, ‘Are you coming back to Mumbai this weekend?’ he replied, ‘I don’t know. The producer is really making me work too much.’

Q: You’re Mrs Funnybones on Twitter. One person who you turn to for a laugh?

A: My sister, Rinke. We just crack up whenever we are together. I don’t know

what it is that we laugh about.

Q: Do you get jokes forwarded to you on WhatsApp?

A: There is an elderly gentleman who sends me 11 to 12 WhatsApp forwards every single day. Sometimes he tries to invent his own jokes which are really poor. But I don’t have the heart to tell him anything, so I just say, “You’re very funny, Uncle. How do you do it?”

Q: A book you recently read that you’d recommend?

A: Alain de Botton’s The Course of Love. I liked how he wrapped a story around the psychology of a relationship. It made a lot of sense to me.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given that you have passed on to your own kids?

A: To laugh at success so that you can shrug off failure easily.