Film Industry: MY EXPERIENCE OF PLAYING A MOM By Bipasha Basu

MY EXPERIENCE OF PLAYING A MOM

By Bipasha Basu

    Amother is our friend, philosopher and guide. The one who usually influences a child the most. It’s just not easy to be a mom. At least not until you become one, like my mom says, (whenever I irritate her) “Jab khud maa banogi tab pata chalega”. I can’t really say that I know what it is to be a mother but I came pretty close to it when I got this brilliant opportunity to play a mother to a 5-yearold Doyel Dhawan in my upcoming film Aatma.
    I always thought that children are fun to be with. I’ve never spent more than two hours at a stretch with my niece Nia, so I was always exposed only to the fun side and could easily play the doting maasi. But, on the sets of Aatma, I had to spend eight to 10 hours with Doyel everyday.
    It was in those hours that I actually got a first-hand experience of what all a mother has to go through with her child everyday. There were good times when she was in a bright, chirpy and playful mood and then there were times when she was grumpy, sad, distracted, at times irritable or sleepy.
    The first few days, I faced teething problems because she was unlike any of my regular costars. At one time, before a scene she fell asleep so I asked Suparn, my director, what should we do now and he coolly said “We wait”. So we waited till she woke up and was ready for the shot.
    Two important tips when shooting with a child — one that the child really needs to like you for him/her to establish any relationship with you and two is that adults need to have loads of patience to handle the child.
    Doyel and me became inseparable from the word go. Over time I became more and more protective about her and missed her whenever she went back home to Delhi. There were times she missed me too and would get her mom to send me an email on her behalf. There were two scenes that were personally very difficult to shoot. Personally for me, because I knew they would affect the child’s natural behaviour post-shoot. One was when I had to physically shake up Doyel and another scene where Doyel had to slap me.
    So before the shoot, I took her aside and explained to her that for the shot my character needs to be a little aggressive with her and she shouldn’t worry. But in spite of all that, she was a little taken aback and was glum post that shot because she had never seen me like that before.
    When it was her turn to slap me, she was a bit hesitant at first but I gave her the freedom to go ahead and hit me for the sake of the scene. I must tell you that I’ve not been slapped so many times and so hard, ever… not even when I was a child.
    I have to confess that post this role of an on-screen mom, I know for a fact that being a mother is not easy. Being a mother is the toughest role a woman plays in her life. There is a lot of learning and responsibility attached when you are a mom. Even though it was tiring and exhausting at times, the moment Doyel would hug me and throw herself on my lap, I would forget everything like a real mother would.
    It’s made me aware of my own intrinsic maternal instinct and I am very positive that one day, I will be a great mom.
HOW PRIYA BECAME NIA
    When Bipasha first began shooting for Aatma, the name of her daughter’s character, played by fiveyear-old Doyel Dhawan, was Priya. But Bipasha requested director Suparn Verma to change it to Nia, which is her niece’s name. Bips, who is very attached to Nia (who is also five years old), felt that she would be able to connect even better with her on-screen daughter if her name was Nia. That’s how Priya became Nia.