An 'overwhelming' experience

You could call it a dream debut. Hema Malini’s daughter, Esha Deol Takhtani, is marking her Sandalwood entry with ‘Care of Footpath 2’, directed by Kishan Shrikanth.

The ‘Care of Footpath’ was made by Kishan when he was barely nine years and now a decade later, he has returned, to once again explore the subject of children, and this time with Esha essaying the role of a lawyer in the film.

A bilingual project, ‘Care of Footpath 2’ is already in the race for the Oscars, in the coming year, as a ‘lateral entry.’

Esha says she could never have made a better decision than to act in this film. I agreed to the project only because the story was intense and it is indeed a very performance-oriented character. I saw a lot of videos and earlier works by Kishan and was impressed with the way he has captured reality and portrayed it in a powerful manner on screen,” says Esha.

She goes on to explain, “The film revolves around issues related to children  that we see around us and read in the newspapers, almost every other day.

My character as a lawyer in the film is to prove the innocence of some children who have been trapped in a situation.” She concedes that she has become a little choosy about projects after her marriage but says she’s always ready to face challenges.

The tougher the role, the easier it is for her to work on it. “The more difficult the role, the more I like it. It’s a challenge for me to essay such intense characters. They give me immense satisfaction as an actor,” she says.

About the Sandalwood project, Esha says, she has the lengthiest of the dialogues, “I had pages after pages of dialogues to understand and memorise.

But Kishan would patiently sit with me and not only explain the dialogues but we would work together on how best to portray the emotions in particular scenes,” she adds.
She dubs the whole experience of working in the Kannada film industry as “overwhelming” and says it is indeed a misconception to believe that the Kannada film industry is a small one.

 “The people, at least those who I worked with, are pretty broad-minded and open. There’s a lot to learn from the people here,” she states.

Esha elaborates that she can speak fluent Tamil but can’t understand or speak a word of Kannada. “I’ve never believed that language is a barrier. Emotions are the most important aspect of acting and as long as an actor can convey those perfectly, nothing else matters,” she adds.