IN HER WORLD
ONE OF ATHIYA SHETTY’S FONDEST CHILDHOOD MEMORIES GOES BACK TO WHEN SHE WAS SIX YEARS OLD. She visited the sets of Umrao Jaan, a film that her father, the Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty, was shooting for. It was rare that she was allowed to be on a set. And she remembers being captivated by the colours, the flurry of activity and, most of all, watching heroine Aishwarya Rai Bachchan getting ready for the shoot. Shetty had always been drawn to the world of films, but, as she recollects, “Being there that day triggered something inside me”.
12 years later, she began paving, directed by Nikhil Advani, and co-starring Sooraj Pancholi. The response was mixed, but Shetty took it in her stride. In the five years since, she has done two more films, a number that is far fewer than that of her contemporaries. But the 27-year-old isn’t in any rush—“It’s about quality and not quantity.” Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, like everybody else, Shetty has been homebound and is happy spending rare quality time with her family.
