Mumbai: Saiyami Kher, who started her career with a Telugu film ‘Rey’, is making her Bollywood debut with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's ‘Mirzya’. She says that it can't get any better than this.
"It couldn't get any better for me. I was chosen for 'Mirzya' after six months of auditioning. Then, when I finally got selected, Rakeysh Sir took me to Delhi to be trained by a theatre director Dilip Shankar.
"I evolved as a person and as an actor over the last two years when I worked on this film," sighs Saiyami, as she now contemplates that inevitable break from her mentor's vigilant nurturing.
Saiyami will share screen space with Harshvardhan Kapoor, son of actor Anil Kapoor, who is also making his Bollywood debut with the film.
"My co-star Harshvardhan Kapoor has already moved on. He is doing a second film. I am still emotionally attached to 'Mirzya'. I know everyone will disperse soon. But how do I deal with it? It's like end of schooling. You know you have to move on in life. But the break is very painful," she added.
She looks at Mehra as a guardian beyond her home. "He is family now. He has taught me so much and do you know, he's a fabulous cook. His mutton curry is to die for," she said.
Saiyami breaks into peals of laughter as she describes her co-star's caution about his diet.
"I am a complete foodie. Harshvardhan measures every morsel he eats. So I'd be devouring my mutton curry while he would be nibbling on his 200 grams of broccoli," she said.
But the two of them had an amazing time together. "Our characters function in two time zones and we shot the two stories like two different films. Mehra shot us in one time zone first, then the other.
"For one of the two characters I had to get a muscular physique and look like an Amazonian warrior. Muscle is something usually associated in our films with the male actors. So it was a fun and challenge to break that mould and the myth," she said.
Like her co-star, Saiyami also carries her family's film legacy. "The late actress Usha Kiron was my Daadi. I was only 10 when she passed away. I knew nothing about her films and work .I knew her only as my doting grandma. It's now that I am catching up with her work. I feel humbled by all the talent around me," she said.
