Amyra hits the right note

Amyra Dastur talks about her recently released single with Sonu Nigam and looks back on her career so far

The petite Amyra Dastur is voluble, honest and does not mince words. At 22, she has been a leading lady in two Bollywood flicks and her latest ‘release’ is a music single titled Aa Bhi Jaa Tu Kahin Se with Sonu Nigam. In a chat with us, she discusses her experience of shooting with the melody king, dropping out of college at a young age and why she was surprised with Mr. X’s debacle.

Amyra reveals that according to Anubhav Sinha (the director of the music video) she was not the ideal choice. “I was a little mouse when I met him and he thought I had no personality and he had second thoughts about casting me. His team convinced him and he called me the

second time, that’s how we went ahead with it. I get really nervous when I meet people who have inspired me, Anubhav being one of them. I have watched a lot of his movies and Tum Bin is one of my favourites,” Amyra adds.

The leggy lass is seen effortlessly playing the cello in the song. Did she take lessons for the same “I rehearsed for two hours daily for three days before leaving for Kerala (for the shoot) and I cut my fingers and the team had to replace the strings on the instrument,” she tells us.

Her nervousness about working with the melody king was soon eased once on the sets: “I thought he would have an air of stardom around him, but Sonu is a very humble man. He would do anything that Anubhav asked him to do. We were doing a shot on a boat and I was scared of falling down, and he was like ‘Don’t worry, I know how to swim and we will be fine’,” she says.

Ever since Amyra remembers, all she wanted to be was an actor. “I used to always say ‘Mumma I want to act’ and even in school, I was a part of the drama clubs. I loved pretending to be someone else and I was good at it too. My parents thought of it as a phase but they later realised it is a dream. My mum has been very supportive throughout. However, my dad wasn’t too happy about me being a part of the industry and dropping out of college, but when he saw Isaaq he was convinced. He openly said that the movie was s***, but I did well.

Did the debacle of her much touted film Mr. X disappoint her “I was a little surprised to be honest. With Isaaq, I learnt not to have high expectations but Anegan (her debut in the South) did very well and I was in the theatres when the film released. I saw people cheering and I was already a star in the South and with Mr. X, I expected at least a ripple, but it did not happen. Unfortunately it wasn’t seen as a family film,” she says.

Amyra will be next seen in Puri Jagannadh’s Rogue. “I leave for Bangkok next week and I’m very excited about it. It is a love story and is completely action packed,” she says.