Everyone is blessed with wonderful parents except one in a million. Ameesha Patel gets emotional with Khalid Mohamed.
Ameesha Patel gets emotional with Khalid Mohamed.
Just can't help staring, staring and staring at her, right across the cafe table, ignoring my strange wheat sandwich. Her complexion is pink roses, the smile Da Vinci-ish, hair a mini-waterfall, eyes like Walt Disney's Bambi. Yikes, could I be flipping out? Not on duty, I slap myself mentally, not done, in any case I'm old enough to be her daddy-o..whom she in any case detests vehemently.
The first time I met Ameesha Patel was at a bakingly hot studio for Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, then I'd run into her, exchange the politest namaskars this side of a politician. More recently, my attitude altered as soon as I saw her in Ankahee. Wow, that soliloquy in which she expresses a jilted wife's hurt got me (it's another spin that I'm a major one for sob stories). Don't know the rest of non-Kahee but she acted her thankless part with an inner conviction. Ergo: asap I dialled the cellphone dramatically. Result: this interview.
If you were in my place, what would you ask Ameesha Patel today?
How come you waited for five long years to interview me? (I preen)... And I would ask, "Are you upset that Ankahee didn't work at the box office?" I am upset that it was sold as just another commercial movie. I had used elements from the life of my grandmother Sushila Patel Gokhale. I was the apple of my grandpa's eyes, Rajni Patel's, I was maybe five when their divorce happened. Today, I feel he may have been an adorable grandpa but he was in the wrong.
Grandma settled down in Pune, the way it's shown in Ankahee, she started life afresh, she stood her ground. Grandpa held tremendous power and position, but he gave her no money. They had three sons – one of them, my father – but they all abandoned my grandma callously. It was just more profitable to be on their father's side.
If anyone visits her in Pune today, it's me and her youngest son Nalin uncle and his family. No one else has given grandma a call. Can you imagine how she feels?
But can you imagine how your parents (Asha and Amit Patel) feel since you turned your back on them?
That's ancient history (Silence).
I'm asking because I don't believe any parents could be so black. Also it has given you the image of an ungrateful daughter.
(Moist-eyed) Everyone is blessed with wonderful parents except one in a million. Ever since I was born at the Breach Candy hospital to the day I had to borrow Rs 500 from my driver for a dentist's appointment – because they wouldn't even give me Rs 50 – I trusted my parents implicitly. I was wiped out of everything I had earned. I wasn't allowed an ATM card, I would be made to sign a bunch of blank cheques, I was misled that my money was being invested, I had income tax liabilities amounting to over Rs 1 crore.
I had no car of my own, I was paying a monthly rent to my father's office for the one I travelled in, and my savings account had the handsome sum of Rs 1200. And it's not only me who has turned my back on them. None of the five brothers of my mother or the two brothers of my father speaks to them.
My money was blown up in bad stock market dealings and the two Fireplace restaurants, in Bandra and Lokhandwala, which did disastrously. I didn't have a proper LIC policy, no mediclaim, no nothing. Believe me, walking out was the most dignified thing I could do. Today, I believe they ask around, "So, what is her income nowadays?" and my mother says quite openly, "I hope her films flop." They have never asked anyone, "How is she?" I have a feeling that my brother (Ashmit) will also be out of that house some day.
As an intelligent head girl of Cathedral School, didn't you foresee this happening to you? Why couldn't you have asserted yourself earlier?
School taught me the values of discipline, morality and loyalty. I didn't say anything earlier because it was politically correct to love your parents. Perhaps, my mother wanted to be an actress herself. When she couldn't, she ensured that come what may, her daughter would live out her fantasies. Ankahee was a catharsis, for my betrayal by my parents..and the betrayal of my grandmother by her husband and sons.
I've put on a very brave front, I've shed tears and tears, I've been through bouts of depression. I've felt alone, insecure. I’ve undestood that I cannot be dependent on anyone. I worked in films in the south which pay well. Right now I'm doing Aap ke Khatir and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, I'm listening to scripts. I've straightened out my act. Throughout, my friends Shalini, Amersey, Sachita and Prachi have stuck by me...or else I wouldn't be here today.
What was Vikram Bhatt's role in your traumatic phase?
(Laughs) Do you know, he was advised to break off with me? He was warned that I'd ditch him and what not. My secretary, Rikkoo, was told to leave my work. My parents don't miss me, they are glamour-struck, they must be missing the film premieres and parties which were more their scene than mine.
Talk is that Vikram Bhatt and you are secretly married.
(Lights up) Really? I wish the rumour was true but before that I have to sort out my baggage, I have to become myself.
Why do other heroines get majorly catty about you?
Because heroines can never be friends. Lara Dutta and Bipasha Basu act buddy buddy on a television show but would love to stab each other in the back.
Was Hrithik Roshan your first crush?
No, no, Dugu was always a friend. My first relationship, as such, was with a wonderful guy from Bombay, when we were both studying at the Tufts University in Boston. When I joined the film industry, he couldn't handle it.
He's married now, we're still friends. My parents, of course, encouraged the relationship since he's from the Kilachand family. They wanted me to go out with anyone who was loaded. I guess, I was just the proverbial golden goose which wised up and flew the coop.
What if your parents were to walk into this cafe at this very moment?
I'd say hello and leave.
Can there be no reconciliation with them?
No. If someone was to make a movie out of my story, it would be far too melodramatic and boring. Maybe it could be a TV serial which could go on and on for hundreds of episodes.
I believe back in the 1960s there was a rift between Nutan and her mother. Our kind of story happens to women from all walks of life, but it takes courage to break the umbilical chord.
What about a reconciliation with your brother Ashmit?
Not possible either. I was very close to him but in my time of need, he wasn't there.
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