Two girls who brought laurels to Shimla

Shriniwas Joshi

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The best faces to see in this world are of the parents whose children have achieved a milestone in life. I am witness to the glow on the faces of Sangeeta and Dr CD Sharma, parents of Mallika Dutt, writer for screenplay along with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for the blockbuster ‘Bajirao Mastani’, and Captain Ved Sud, father of Aparna Sud, production designer for ‘Neerja’ who created a PanAm Boeing 747 just from a scratch.

Sangeeta proudly told me to go and see the movie ‘Bajirao Mastani’ at Multiplex, Shimla, and find Mallika’s name figuring in the credits while Ved had invited school students to see the movie ‘Neerja’ at Shahi where he told the students that they could also achieve what his daughter had achieved if they dreamt of becoming something and stuck to it. May I add here that Ved’s wife Sarita, a social activist, died a few years ago?

Mallika was born on August 8, 1983, in Shimla. She studied at Loreto Convent, Dayanand, and St Bede’s then did Masters in Advertising and Marketing Management from Amity University, Delhi. Here she scored marks to break all previous records and got a Gold Medal.

She had decided to choose a career related to art and literature despite her father’s insistence to make medical as her profession. She had her way and that way is now bringing laurels to her. I remember that when she was here in Shimla, she had written and directed a play “Three Wishes” for Monal Public School, which stood first in one-act play competition among various schools in Shimla. True, coming events cast their shadows before.

Mallika, after her Masters, got an offer from Balaji Telefilms Ltd and she grabbed it with both hands. Today, she is working as an independent script head in Hindi Space with Balaji. Her show ‘Pavitra Bandhan’ for Balaji in the DD channel for which she is writing the story and the screenplay is making waves. She has the credit of establishing a Marathi vertical for Balaji Telefilms starting from conceptualisation to story building to screenplay and set up of the shows. She says that her personal interests are reading and watching movies. Happily married to Ashish Gharde, she is, today, known as Mallika Dutt Gharde (See photo) in the professional circle.

Aparna Sud was born in Chandigarh in 1978. She did her schooling in Shimla at Loreto Convent and then went for graduation to Chandigarh. A diploma in interior designing was a cherry in the cake. She came back to Shimla and worked as understudy for two known architects. In 2002, she went to Mumbai when her sister, settled there, asked her whether she would like to be an assistant to a production designer. She says, “I agreed and that is how my journey in Bollywood began” (See photo). She had designed for the movies ‘Tevar’ and ‘Any Body Can Dance’ but her most challenging venture was to design a Boeing aircraft for the film ‘Neerja’. It was almost like going back to school.

“I started with the layout, drawings and made some 3D models. I referred to every resource available online, including the website set up by the ex-employees of PanAm. I also went through technical manuals of Boeing 747, consulted pilots who had flown the aircraft and also met aeronautical engineers and flight attendants.”

Her efforts did pay off. When I saw the movie I was thrilled by the precision and the details involved in designing PanAm Boeing 747, now defunct, where the entire emotional drama took place. It looked so real. Ram Madhvani, director of the film ‘Neerja’, had said, “This was not a set. It was a real thing. If it wasn’t real then you can’t feel it.”

Do you know what is there on the top of Aparna’s wish list? A period film fan, she says, “I would love to work on a period film. Mughal-e-Azam is among my favourite films, and it is quite a challenge to recreate that era.” The day will also come, Aparna.

— The writer is a retired bureaucrat