St Stephen College graduate Kanika Dhillon's story was clichéd – girl from Amritsar comes to Delhi college for graduation, heads to UK ( London School of Economics) for further education and then lands a plum job in an MNC.
Everything was as 'normal' as it could be, except that Kanika hated the word 'normal'. She'd had Bollywood aspirations since she was 17, but her parents wanted her to finish conventional education first. As soon as Kanika finished her degree in the UK, she picked the phone, called her parents and told them that she's headed to Mumbai. Now, five years later, she is the Creative Content Head at Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chilies Entertainment, and is also one of the script writers for his next magnum opus "Ra. One". Excerpts from a chat:
Everything was as 'normal' as it could be, except that Kanika hated the word 'normal'. She'd had Bollywood aspirations since she was 17, but her parents wanted her to finish conventional education first. As soon as Kanika finished her degree in the UK, she picked the phone, called her parents and told them that she's headed to Mumbai. Now, five years later, she is the Creative Content Head at Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chilies Entertainment, and is also one of the script writers for his next magnum opus "Ra. One". Excerpts from a chat:
How did your parents react when you came to Mumbai? They didn't entertain the idea of me going to Bollywood and asked me to finish my education first. So, when I finally called them after getting a job in London, they thought I'd lost my mind. For months they told everyone that I was overworked and was taking a break in Mumbai.
Why Bollywood – after such a plethora of degrees in your kitty?
I wanted to be in Bollywood since I was 17. I always wanted to tell stories, to write some and be a filmmaker, and here I am now.
Has your story in Mumbai been filmy?
Yes, completely. I started at the bottom of the filmy food chain, which included getting print outs for my seniors and I must say it's been a roller coaster ride emotionally. Before coming to India, I'd told my parents that there's only one person I want to work with and that's Shah Rukh Khan. If I didn't get to work with him, I'd go back to London. First thing in Mumbai, I went to the Red Chilies office with a couple of short stories and met the CEO Mr Chawla.
He liked my stories but told me that I can't just come with a story and become a writer. He said you have to start assisting first and see how it goes from there. So, that's how I got my first job. Slowly and steadily, I started doing better profiles and finally got to interact with SRK. He saw my potential and I landed my next few assignments, which included "Billu" and now " Ra.One". It's all filmy.
So, is your debut novel "Bombay Duck is a Fish", which also is about a Bollywood aspirant meeting SRK, autobiographical in nature?
No. The whole plot is fictional, even though there are a lot of motivations and inspirations from real people I met. But it's not my story. I gave a copy of the book to SRK yesterday and have also dedicated it to him.
Source- TOI
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