Star Wars, a Broadway musical, a British soap opera and Shakespeare — Ayesha Dharker has played many roles; all while holding on to her Mumbai accent. She shares her journey in an animated chat with Amishi Parekh.
Midway through answering my very first question, Ayesha Dharker remarks, “The camera is a mythical beast, the face of a machine and the arms and legs of a human, caught in an eternal present and waiting to swallow your soul.” Effusively gracious to a fault, what makes her endearing is her refusal to hide her longstanding love affair with film and theatre. From talking about her first film in 1989 to her most recent role as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, it becomes abundantly clear that she lives and breathes to perform. “After all these years I still can’t walk past a building site smelling of fresh wood because it smells like a film set. Film and theatre are my work and my play,” she adds.
Dharker was a few years my senior at the South Mumbai girls’ school we both attended, known for its strong dramatic bent in those days. She was already something of a legend, having landed a lead role in her first film at the age of eight. “I was picked out of school to be in a French film about reincarnation (Manika, un vie plus tard). I guess I was hooked, filming in wonderful places I had only heard about, meeting actors and directors who took me seriously and being in a room with wonderful technicians and machines.”
Esta historia es de la edición November 2016 de Verve.
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Esta historia es de la edición November 2016 de Verve.
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Diamonds With Provenance
In keeping with the company’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility, Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chief sustainability officer at Tiffany & Co. and chairman and president at The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, enlightens Shirin Mehta on the efforts that make the jewellery giant an industry leader in transparency
SARTORIAL ECONOMICS
Sisters Tashi and Tara Mitra demonstrate to Akanksha Pandey how deviating from the mainstream can bend the way we think, live and dress
NOTES TO SELF
An anthropomorphized tiger’s perspective, a viscerally worded futuristic interpretation of loss, a critique of performative activism, a meta reflection on the earth’s crises. Told through different lenses, Janaki Lenin, Indrapramit Das, Keshava Guha and Roshan Ali’s stories — written exclusively for Verve — attempt to make sense of the fraught reality that we exist in today
The Eternal Optimist
As Generation X and xennials grapple with fully transitioning to conscious living, young millennials and Generation Z are leading the charge to reverse human-caused environmental damage. Sahar Mansoor, founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based zero-waste social enterprise Bare Necessities, has a simple overarching philosophy: consume less and stay positive. Verve gets deeper into the mindset of the action-oriented earth advocate
Redemption SONGS
Indian music festivals have been demonstrating a refreshing sense of responsibility in terms of their ecological impact. Interacting with stakeholders who strive to make these large-scale events greener, Akhil Sood investigates the reasons behind the improved attitudes of audiences and the increase in corporate support.
earth hour
Crafted using nature’s elements, these dials draw inspiration from the many heterogeneous materials and hues around us.Verve turns its lens onto a mesmerising few
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Children are holding adults accountable for both the grim future they are facing and the toll this is taking on their mental health. Madhumita Bhattacharyya initiates conversations with families of young climate activists and observes the extent to which parenting has changed in the face of catastrophe
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Most of us are only just waking up to the urgency of climatic action. When the stakes are so high, what can individual action solve? Mridula Mary Paul, an environmental policy expert, is proof of the tenacity needed to effect systemic change. It’s not glamorous, and the rewards are few and far between, but that doesn’t stop her from aiming big, finds Anandita Bhalerao
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Navigating Indian streets as a woman is hard enough. But what is it like while riding a bicycle? Bengaluru-based Shreya Dasgupta, a regular cyclist, speaks to five urban women about the pros and cons of this increasingly popular means of transport.
