Farhan Akhtar on how footage shot by the Chaudharys of daughter Aisha helped him prep for The Sky Is Pink
Farhan Akhtar
Until the trailer of The Sky Is Pink dropped online, many movie-goers assumed that the film would be a poignant chronicle of how a set of parents deals with their daughter's death. Leading man Farhan Akhtar too held similar perceptions before reading the script. "Death is scary, but we treat it with a degree of moroseness. When I read about how, instead of mourning the impending passing of someone they loved, the family focused on making her [remaining] life as beautiful as they could, I was blown away," says Akhtar.
The Shonali Bose-directed biographical venture sees Akhtar and Priyanka Chopra Jonas play Niren and Aditi Chaudhary, parents to Aisha Chaudhary, who was born with an immune deficiency disorder. While movies inspired by real-life events take cinematic liberties to draw viewers to theatres, he credits Bose for staying true to the material. "Everything shown here is what was told to Shonali [by Aisha's parents]. As a father, I could relate to the love the parents felt. Ever since the child was aged one, this family lived with the knowledge that anything could happen to her, anytime."
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A still from The Sky Is Pink
While he had watched Aisha's TED Talk, he has yet to read her book, My Little Epiphanies, which was published a day before she passed away at 18. "As soon as Niren and Aditi knew Aisha's time with them was limited, they shot her [every waking moment]. They had plenty of footage featuring Aisha and themselves. Those videos gave me an insight into their relationship. Aisha treated them like friends, and would constantly make fun of them. We've also read passages of her book because they've been included in the film."
When we had last connected with Akhtar in April, he was overwhelmed with the all-consuming journey of creating his debut album, Echoes. "After Echoes, I needed a film of this calibre to pull me back to acting. It rekindled the flame of my search for good stories."
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