there is nothing of the sort going on now! How did she
like Kashmir, I ask, and she says briefly, “Accha lagaa
(I liked it)!” The reason, apparently, was the aforementioned abundance of snowballs!
Who else did she like on the sets? She enumerates
them on her fingers: “Kareena aunty, Nawazuddin uncle and Saira,” she says. Saira is director Kabir Khan’s
daughter, who is more or less her age. Did she shoot
with her, I ask mischievously, and she replies, “Nahin!
Woh to bas shooting dekhti thi, jaati thi aati thi, jaati thi,
aath thi! (She would just watch the shooting, go, come
back, go, come back!)” But she declares that her most
favorite person who loved her and praised her the most
was “Kabir uncle!”
To a question phrased with an Urdu word, she shakes
her head and says, “Nahin samjha. (Did not understand),” and the reply comes promptly when it is suitably
rephrased by the scribe. Says her mother, “She would
say this to Kabir, too, if she did not understand what he
said. Or she would even ask why she had to do something they told her to and would then do it.”
Does she like shooting more or studying? Malhotra
glances up at her mother, who laughs and says, “I know
she likes shooting more!” As Malhotra romps off for a
stroll again, her mother informs us that Malhotra will
not work after the fifth standard in school until she completes her studies.
Doing the film was possible only because of a cooperative school, though no one there knew what film she was
doing and with whom. “Some of the teachers would try
and find out, and Malhotra would tell them, ‘Sorry! Not
Allowed!’” laughs her mother.
The wunderkind has yet to go back to school after the
film’s release. Will she invite her friends to watch the
film? A vigorous shake of the head follows, and Malhotra
says, “Main nahin dikhaoongi. Sab dekhne jaayenge! (I
will not show them the film. They will go to watch it!)!”
That includes Deepshikha, her “best friend.”
Malhotra’s favorite subject is mathematics, and her fave
foods are chicken, rajma-chawal and pastries. Who else
does she like among actors? “Katrina (Kaif)!” she says
instantly. Did she meet her? She nods animatedly, stating that it was during the shoot of “Aaj Ki Party Meri Taraf
Se.” Her mother supplies, “She saw Katrina come in,
went to meet her and talked to her on her own. She then
came back and took my cell phone to click pictures!” Of
course, she is an expert in that and later clicks a couple
of selfies with me on my phone!
And was it true that she actually asked Salman, “Will
you make me a superstar like you?” when they first met?
“She did, and I do not know how!” says her mother. “She
has learned this word superstar, which she wants to be
now. When casting director Mukesh Chhabra and Kabir
Khan took her to meet Salman before finalizing her and
when I asked her what she talked with him about, she
told me this! I was shocked, but she has been a great
fan of him since “Kick” and went crazy with excitement
for three days after signing this film!”
27 | BOOM
C OVER STORY