Fan- atical...
Margherita With A Straw
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Dr Parikh adds, “Especially musicians because either the melody or the lyrics appeal very personally to them. But you also need to see that a lot of people who end up crossing a line, so to speak, also have issues in other parts of their lives. You need to look at their social support system, their friends, family, work place, academics... when someone is well engaged with other parts of his/ her life, they are less likely to be affected by one single person or incident. When one thing supercedes, is when things start to go wrong. If you’re getting self- destructive about anything, you need help. Because the tendency won’t stop with any one individual personality — it is not specific to the role model. If it is Zayn Malik today, it’ll be someone else later because the inclination to be so attached comes from “I don’t remember not being connected to the performing arts in some way or another, even in my earliest memories,” says actress Sayani Gupta, as she begins to talk about her journey from dance to cinema while sharing with us her excitement for her upcoming release, Shonali Bose’s Margherita With A Straw alongside Kalki Koechlin. Born in Kolkata into an artistically inclined household, her fondest childhood memories are those of her first dance school. “My first stage performance was when I was three. When you put someone so young into an environment like that, their body and mind are both shaped by it in very seminal ways. As I grew up, I was very sure that I would become a dancer one day because I also had an urge to study dance as a discipline. With time, however, I realised that theatre fascinated me too. Today, when I look back, I feel as though I must’ve had an inkling all along that acting is what I was eventually going to do in life,” she reminisces.
After graduating from Lady Shri Ram college in Delhi and working for a year in a lucrative, but thoroughly boring job, the actress finally decided to take the plunge and filled the form for FTII, Pune. Sayani recalls that her family — her mother in particular — were violently against the idea of an abrupt career switch, especially one that took her to the world of films. “I had by then also become very interested in studying acting and cinema, but lied to my mom and told her that I was going to study editing!” she laughs.
A stint in a student film by one of her juniors at FTII got her an audition call from director Gaurav Punjwani for the lead role in Second within you and not from something or someone external.”
From a celebrity’s point of view, actress and producer Vishakha Singh shares, “You have to take the whole ‘ celebrity’ thing with a pinch of salt. Fans often forget that we are just working professionals with a more flamboyant job profile. I often request the few well wishers I have, to not put me on a pedestal. Some understand and respect that while some don’t.” Online media in particular is where being a celebrity comes with its pluses and minuses. Vishakha adds, “I keep my Facebook personal page very private. Recently, I have had a few attempts of someone trying to hack my account. Sometimes, you get pornographic pictures in your mail box and lewd comments. Once, I almost got mobbed at the music launch of my Telugu film Rowdy
Desh Fellow. That was scary. What irks me the most is when fans start stalking my family. I have had instances when they have sent friend requests to my family members and approached them for my number and private details.”
Actress, singer and former VJ Sophie Choudry, describing one of her scariest fan experiences, recalls, “It was a couple of years after I had to moved to Mumbai. My songs Mera babu chail chabila and Ek pardesi had become big hits. At that time we didn’t have Twitter and I wasn’t active on Facebook either but somehow there was this one fan who used to send letters to my home address talking about all the places where he had seen me — be it in Juhu or at the airport, and sometimes he would even know which city I had been to. Then, a few times, the letters came in blood declaring undying love for me and my songs! The strange and fortunate thing was that I never came face to
Straw,
Tasher
Margherita With A face with him and once we moved, I never heard from him again.”
Sharing how she deals with the crazy ones, Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin says, “I used to have a teenage fan who used to send me gifts like posters, cutouts, CDs, collages etc. I would always respond to him, but later when things started getting awkward, I stopped responding as I realised that all this appreciation was just a way of getting into Bollywood. Over the years, I have learnt to take it easy. Now, when I am in a public place, I do give my time to fans except when I am dining or clubbing with my family or friends, but people should understand that we are giving our movies to them, which is enough dedication from our end. Our lives, our private space is sacrosanct to us and not open for public scrutiny or encroachment.”
She adds, “I like you guys but from a distance. The true fans will be those who would love me even when I am 95 and still doing theatre.”