Former child and teen actor Ayesha Kapur is a busy girl these days. The 17-year-old is studying at the Deerfield Academy in the United States, an elite preparatory co-education boarding school in Massachusetts. Between academics, theatre, dance and acting lessons, Kapur manages to discuss design specifications, branding and marketing strategies related to her year-old accessories brand, Ayesha, with her mother.
While Kapur has already proved her acting prowess in the critically acclaimed film ‘Black’ as Michelle McNally in 2004 and the well-received 2009 film, ‘Sikander’, right now her business and the well rounded education she is receiving seem to be taking centrestage.
For those not in the know, she hails from Pondicherry and is the daughter of Dilip and Jacqueline Kapur, the powerhouses behind the brands Hidesign and Casablanca and the hotels La Promenade and Le Dupleix. She decided to branch out into her own costume jewellery and accessories brand a year ago. The range comprises of retrosunnies, alice bands, charm necklaces, chunky beads, statement necklaces, cocktail rings and laptop sleeves, even bags and hats that Blair Waldorf from the TV series ‘Gossip Girl’ might favour.
The reasonable prices and trendy nature of her trinkets have made her brand successful, Ayesha feels. Ayesha Accessories now boasts of 17 stores across the country, including three in Bangalore. We got Kapur talking about her brand. Ayesha and why she is eager to return to the big screen only if someone offers her a ‘horse’ film.
n Making of the brand
I’ve been travelling with my mom Jacqueline for many years on shopping trips for her boutique and department store Casablanca, in Pondicherry. Mom allowed me to express myself and would always listen to what I had to say. As I got into my teens and began experimenting with new looks, I began to feel the lack of good options. One evening, over dinner, I realised that starting my own range of accessories was the best way to bridge the gap.
Ayesha, the brand, is fun, new, always changing and very accessible. Ayesha is for someone like me. There are lots of fashion accessory brands out there, but not many that complete your wardrobe with an entire range of products that are so `now’. Ayesha has been designed for a young, modern Indian woman. It also reflects my personal evolving style. Every three months, my mother and I work on a whole new range of products. The plan is to have around 100 stores across the country in the next three to five years. We will stay on top of international trends and bring the element of fun and fashion home.
If you ask me which actress I would like to dress up in Ayesha. I’d say give me an actor too. Like Brad Pitt and Ranbir Kapur. For, we are coming out with an entire boy’s range in 2012. Guys be ready! The men’s collection will be a small section of Ayesha and will include funky watches, bracelets, rings and more. The collection will be mainly and rugged in look and feel.
n The Hidesign family
Growing up with the Hidesign family gave me great exposure to the fashion world from a very young age. While I grew up in Auroville, my family loved to travel. So wherever we went, we visited museums and heritage places. These factors have influenced my design sensibilities.
n Tokyo
My visit to Tokyo was one such experience from which I took back a lot in terms of design inspiration. While in America and Europe, you get to see ‘a very specific sense of style’, the same cardigans and floral shirts. But in Tokyo, every girl and boy is interpreting fashion in his or her own way. Be it individualistic haircuts, or tearing or trying up their tees in knots, Tokyo showed me that it is important to understand that your style is you.
n Family Portrait
I am close to both my parents. My mother, a German, did grow up in Germany but has been living in India for the last 20 years. I can confide in her anytime and speak with her everyday, which I don’t think my friends here can do with their moms. My dad went to a school in Andover in Massachusettes and felt that his high school experience prepared him for life. I am following in his footsteps and my three older brothers have also been to high school in the States. I think once you are away from family, you realise how much they mean to you and it’s always they who are going to stand by you.
n All about films
I have always acted by instinct and with very little training, when I was working in my previous films. People go to acting school first and then start acting; with me it was the
other way round. I first acted in two films and now I am in an intense acting course.
At Deerfield, I am learning acting along with academics. Right now in school, we are working on monologues and how to write them for character building. I find that very interesting. We use a series of exercises, for example, thought reading, where everyone shoots questions at you and you have to imagine you are someone and answer them back in character. These methods are fascinating.
My Hindi needs a lot of brushing up, though I can speak English, German and Tamil. During the filming of ‘Sikander’ in 2009, I learnt the entire script, which was in Hindi, by heart. Though I understood my lines, knowing Hindi would have helped me much more. So, when I take my gap year before going to college, I intend to to some internships in India and learn Hindi during that time. Knowing and speaking in Hindi is essential to acting in Bollywood in the future.
n A horse movie?
Is there anybody out there who wants to shoot a horse movie with a girl in 2013? I have been riding all my life. I started when I was just three years old on my mother’s insistence, who is also a trained rider herself. I started competing at five. I own two horses -- an all-white Andalusian stallion called Estigon and a dark brown thoroughbred mare called Adora. In India. I would ride them every day. But here, I just have their photographs hanging in my room and I just get to look at them everyday and miss them a lot. Right now, I am concentrating on my studies. Even Ayesha is a bit on the backburner for me at the moment. From Monday to Friday -- it’s all about school, though I have acting classes twice a day.