Brought up in a household where she would wake up at 5 am to her mother's kathak practice in their living room while her father would do vocal warm-up, Dhaani Jhankal remembers an incident from her childhood that typifies her initiation into the world of performing arts. "I was in the fourth or fifth standard, and my final exams were going on. When I returned home from school, my mother informed me of this huge theatre festival at the NCPA, where the best of plays were being staged," shares Dhaani, seated in the green room of the Sophia Bhabha Auditorium, flanked by father and veteran actor Ravi Jhankal, and mother and noted kathak dancer-choreographer Anita Ordia. "It was the 50th anniversary celebration of Sangeet Natak Akademi," Ordia recalls. "Yes, and Mom told me, 'These are routine exams. But it's important for you to watch these plays.' And so, we packed my books, which I read on our way to and from the NCPA, but we attended the festival," adds Dhaani.

That was 2002. In the years that followed, she felt more drawn towards the footwork of kathak than the blocking of theatre. But her love for acting, as she was to realise, was merely a dormant one, waiting to spring to life. And it did.