Star Kids With Different Dreams

Akshay Kumar recently revealed that his 23-year-old son Aarav has no interest in acting. Instead, he has chosen to go into fashion designing, travelling to remote villages to learn firsthand about fabrics and earning a paltry `4500 per month.

It is not a life one would associate with a youngster whose father earns Rs 120 crore per project. But star-kids don’t always follow their parents’ footsteps!

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. Anil Kapoor’s elder daughter Rhea never had any interest in being an actor. She chose to be a producer. While Sonam was an actress from childhood.”

Mahesh Bhatt tells an interesting story about his daughters Shaheen and Alia Bhatt. “They had their roles cut out from childhood. The elder, Shaheen, had no interest whatsoever 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.”

Nysa Devgan, daughter of actors Ajay Devgn and Kajol has a bachelor’s degree in International Hospitality. She 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.

Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan continues to get a truckload of acting offers. Karan Johar has been wanting to launch him for the past four years. But Khan Junior 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 will always be compared unfavourably with his father.

“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 whatsoever 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.

Jaya and Amitabh’s grandson Agastya Nanda, is also an actor. Their granddaughter, Navya Naveli, has, however, chosen not to follow the family profession, although producers have been queueing up to sign her.

Jackie Shroff has the last word on the topic. “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,” he says, philosophically.