Ayesha Kapur, who made such an impressive debut as a 10-year-old in Black is proud to be back on screen for Sikander and hopes to use this as a stepping stone towards a big career as an actress. However, she hopes equally that this will not change her as a person. “Who says you can’t be a star as well as a good actor, I want to be both,” she says, “I am young but I know that acting is my passion but at the same time I don’t want to be taken over by fame. I am just Ayesha for my friends and family and it would be horrible if that changes.”
Ayesha lives in the experimental Auroville community, near to Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, far from the Bollywood circuit. Auroville was developed in 1968 to be a universal city where people of all nationalities would live and work in peace and harmony – although it could currently be described as little more than a village – with a population of just over 2,000. Ayesha, herself, has an Indian father and a German mother. “I live in Auroville and so I have friends who are from all over the world, from Italy to Korea,” Ayesha explains, “They are really not that into Bollywood, so my acting career has not changed my equation with them and I prefer it that way.”
Set amidst the intractable problems of Kashmir, Sikander approaches the issue from the point of view of two children. As actor Madhavan explains, “It’s a thriller film. It’s about two kids in Kashmir. How they lose their innocence in different circumstances and how they regain it back. My character is a pivotal character and not the main character. The film is about these two kids. I am playing an army officer who will do anything for the sake of peace in Kashmir.”
