This story is from August 18, 2007

A special film on a special child

Reagan Gavin Rasquinha / TNN / Aug 18, 2007, 00:00 IST

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Kaushik Roy’s Apna Asmaan on a special child has bagged an international award

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Irrfan Khan in a still from the film and (right) Kaushik Roy (TOI Photo)Kaushik Roy’s Apna Asmaan on a special child has bagged an international award
How far would you go to push your child into achieving things that were beyond his or her grasp? That’s the question which Reliance’s Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication president, Kaushik Roy, who took a sabbatical from his corporate persuasions, asked in his film — Apna Asmaan.
Being a film that questions parental roles and which asks uncomfortable questions, it bagged the German Star of India award at the Stuttgart Bollywood And Beyond Festival.
Set in Mumbai, the lead pair in the film have a child who suffers from a learning disablity. While the mother is desperate to get her child treated by a specialist, the father chooses to say c’est la vie when faced with this issue.

For Roy, apart from the sensitive subject matter, and making the film itself, bagging Irrfan Khan to essay the lead role that was what made the film all the more special.
But what would, you might ask, a corporate commando be doing dabbling in celluloid? “My father has always been into film and I’ve grown up on a diet of Satyajit Ray films. I’ve always wanted to do this as its been in my blood,” says Roy. So how did he manage to rope in Irrfan for this film? “I contacted him through a mutual friend. He was in Dubai at the time.

After he heard it, he asked for a screenplay. His thoughts were that the matter had been treated with sincerity. For me, getting Irrfan Khan to do my film was much more important than other issues.”
Irrfan, on his part, admits to having been a bit sceptical when Roy, from a non-filmi background, approached him. But his fears were allayed when he read the script. “It didn’t seem like a regular script for me.
It felt as though somebody had lived through it. It made me curious to get to know how he visualised it,” reveals the actor.
Roy adds, “People might empathise with Irrfan’s character as a man who’s gone through a lot but still remains positive.”
On another note, both Kaushik and Irrfan state that working with Rajat Kapur — who plays a doctor in the film — was great. “Rajat’s a very technical actor. Me and Shobhna (the female lead) had an excellent time working with Rajat.
My equation with him in the film is very interesting. Shobhna plays my wife and she has a soft corner for his character.” Without giving away too much, Kaushik adds, “There’s nothing happening between them but yet, there’s a chemistry between them that works very well. Rajat also essays the thematic voice, the conscience, of the film.”
But if there was one thing that Irrfan would have liked to have see in this film, it would have been a song-and-dance sequence!”

About the Author

Reagan Gavin Rasquinha

A technology, gaming, features and music journalist at the Times Group. I look after the international pages and review new music for Bombay Times and review Hollywood and International film releases for the Times of India.

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