BollyParty

When we arrived on the sets of Ahmed Khan’s Paathshala recently, we saw Ayesha Takia and a bunch of kids having a ball. It was only later that we realised the cameras were rolling and the freewheeling group were shooting. The sets resemble a huge boarding school and from the looks of it, academia was never this much fun. “It’s lovely to be around children. They can shoot for twenty hours together and not run out of energy,” she says admiringly. Ayesha’s role had to be snipped to accommodate the kids. But she’s taken it with a pinch of salt for the film, the great script and of course Ahmed and his wife, Shaira who are family friends. The child actors on the sets are apparently full of zest and have plenty of queries and compliments for Ayesha. “They compliment me on my hair. One of them asked me if my cheeks are real,” she laughs. Despite of all the masti, there are rules to be followed on the sets. Ahmed Sir after all has a film to complete and makes sure the fun is organised and controlled. “There’s no smoking on the sets, no shouting and no yelling on the mike,” he says. The mood was still upbeat when the shoot wrapped up, but Ayesha got a little emotional. Find out why.