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want to be remembered just as Smriti Irrani, mother of two great kids and the wife of Zubin Irani PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM
MULTI-TASKING 0 strikes a pose for The Hindu in New Delhi A wannabe journalist. A Miss India finalist who became a TV icon. Having dabbled with politics, where she famously burned her fingers contesting Lok Sabha elections, she is now a telly-producer. Also as a theatre lover, you might have already spotted her in a play or two on Mumbai stage. Smriti Irrani, all of 30, has clearly begun multi-tasking quite early in life. A mother of two, who admits "getting up early even after a late night to ready the kids for school", Smriti though biffs back a bit when reminded of squeezing too many things in a day, "I wonder why no man is asked why he does so many things at a time?" A woman like her, she explains, "does too many things in too little time not because she feels her time is running out but because she can do these many things in this much time." "You have to constantly challenge yourself to do better, isn't it?" she asks, almost to herself. And this consciousness seems to be an invisible twine that has bound Smriti to her mentor and 'K' queen, Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms for the last six years. The credit of dolling up Smriti so well to turn her into the famous 'bahu' of the tube will always rest with Ekta and her magnum opus, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, she is quick to give credit. And now, taking this relationship further, Smriti is producing her debut series, Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Sa Aasmaan on Star Plus from August 19 jointly with Ekta. "When I discussed with Ekta and her mother (Shobha Kapoor) the storyline of my serial, they said, why don't we do it together? And I looked at it as a gesture of respect from their side. I learnt my acting at Balaji, so how could I have said no to them. It is like graduating from a good school and then it being asked to become its teacher," says Smriti, lacing it with her usual broad smile. She is not just producing it, she is playing the lead too in Thodi Si Zameen... As Uma "I am playing the role of Uma, a 27-year-old daughter of a mill worker who undertakes several jobs to run the family ever since the mill was shut. Most mills in and around Mumbai have been shut in the last few years as the owners have opted for more lucrative business. The story, penned by Kamlesh Pandey, is set in a Mumbai chawl where hordes of out-of-job mill workers live," describes Smriti. The serial, she assures, "will be quite different technically from the usual stuff seen on TV these days." By this, she means that it will be minus the trademark 'K' serial gloss. Though she has a storyline for 52 episodes, Smriti, living with the experience of the long-running Kyunki... , would rely more on audience response to decide on its continuity. A disillusioned politician In New Delhi to attend her party's Rashtriya Sammelan on The Right To Employment Bill, Smriti, clad in a brick red sari with a black border, sans her Tulsi make-up except for a diamond-studded mangalsutra, is quite open about her disillusionment as a politician. "I never realised it so seriously before. There is a complete lack of public trust in politicians now. The biggest challenge for any politician is to gain back people's conviction in them. That is really not easy, and it leaves me disillusioned," she says. Every April 13, the day she fought a failed electoral battle against Kapil Sibal of Congress from Chandni Chowk, Smriti comes down to her home city, Delhi "to organise a karyakram just to remind people whether their votes have actually brought in any change in their everyday life." For the country But has politics changed her life? She takes no time to reply: "Politics is but a part of so many things that I am involved in. I am in politics because I want to do something for my country. I am doing so many things together because I want my kids to be proud of their mother. I want to leave behind a legacy. Many people ask me, 'You have achieved so much, why don't you write your autobiography?' I say, 'Smriti Irrani is not completely a public property'. There are so many things so private to me that I don't want to share with everybody."
MULTI-TASKING 0 strikes a pose for The Hindu in New Delhi
"Finally", she adds, "if you ask me, how I want to be remembered, I would say, just as Smriti Irrani, mother of two great kids and the wife of Zubin Irani." The perfect bahu material indeed!
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