Thaindian News

August 17, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Who says two actresses and co-stars cannot be friends? Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor may feel otherwise. But Sonam Kapoor had no choice but to get along with her co-star Ira Dubey during the shooting of Aisha… with Sonam’s Papa Anil Kapoor’s blessing.

Apparently Sonam was often tempted to play the queen of the show on the sets, what with Aisha being her home production featuring Sonam in the author-backed title role. But Anil, forever pragmatic and democratic, would have none of his daughter’s starry tantrums.

Says a source, “Anil made sure the other two girls in the film, Ira Dubey and Amrita Puri, felt completely at home. He virtually ordered three of everything on the sets so that Sonam never got a chance to sit on a high horse.”

Ira vouches for the democratic atmosphere. “Mr. Kapoor has been exceptionally generous. Although my mom is a movie actress I’ve spent all my life on stage. From age 6 I’ve been part of theatre. I’d have been shattered if I was given the nose-in-the-air you-don’t-belong-here treatment.”

Anil, in fact, made Ira sit on the auditions for the other actors!

Says the Yale-returned Ira, “I was the second actor to come on board after Sonam. I was lucky to watch the evolution of the project. It is true Mr. Kapoor made me sit with Sonam and Rhea Kapoor at all the auditions to select the third girl, Amrita Puri, since she came in much later. It was a process that instilled confidence in me. I felt at home. Not every newcomer gets this kind of support.”

Now she’s ready to rough it out on the average film set. “I realize I’ve been spoilt silly by the Kapoors. But you must remember I am used to roughing it out in the community atmosphere of theatre productions. Both my sister and I are used to acting under severe conditions.”

The redoubtable Lilette Dubey’s younger daughter Ira is all set to make her Bollywood debut alongside Sonam Kapoor. She says mom Lillette is a source of inspiration. “But it’s my sister Neha who got to act with mom in Bow Barracks Forever and Monsoon Wedding.”

– Subhash K Jha / Sampurn Wire