From a La Martiniere girl To Big B's onscreen daughter New Aahana Arti

Little did Lucknow girl, Aahana Kumra know that shifting from Lucknow to Mumbai will change her life completely . "My father was based in Mumbai and since I was in Lucknow with my mother, we used to get to see him only once a year. In fact, my mother used to joke that before I started calling him uncle, we should move to Mumbai. And moving there worked in my favour as I started acting," says Aahana, who has studied at La Martiniere Girls' College till class VII.
"I was always inclined towards acting, but in Lucknow I didn't get much opportunity . In school I was quite active on stage, but the exposure was limited. When I moved to Mumbai, I started attending acting workshops at Prithvi Theatre.That was my first encounter with acting and theatre and that's when I decided that this is where I want to be and want to do," says Aahana, who was in Lucknow recently for a close friend's wedding.
Later, Aahana joined Naseeruddin Shah's theatre group in Mumbai. "He offered me the play , By George! and made me prepare for it for six months," says Aahana.
But working with the veteran actor wasn't an easy task, recalls Aahana. "Naseer sir is very strict and I have been scolded very often by him as well as Ratna ma'am (Ratna Pathak Shah, Shah's wife)," shares Aahana, adding, "But I am like their child now. Since they are my gurus, they have all the right in the world to scold me as I know they only mean well for me."
However, Aahana says she has learnt a lot from her gurus. "For them, work is the most important thing in life and everything else just follows. They are not on social media and they don't care about anything else except their work. I still get feedback from them for every performance that I do with them. Even if I am doing a play with some other production, they will come and see me act and give me feedback. The joy of doing theatre is something that I have got from them," she says.
But Aahana says that the high point in her career so far has been working with Amitabh Bachchan as his daughter in the TV series Yudh. "I had gone to audition for a part in Bombay Velvet which eventually Raveena Tandon did, when Anurag (Kashyap) saw me outside the venue. He had seen me on stage previously , so he just walked up to me and said, 'Bachchan ki beti ka role karegi?' And I was like, 'Hain! What?' He instinctively decided to cast me in the role," she laughs, adding, "It was spectacular working with Amitabh Bachchan. I got to work with him for a year and a half and I am mesmerised by him, he is simply larger than life."
The pretty actor also did the show Agent Raghav, a crime based thriller on TV. Ask her if she is consciously staying away from saas bahu serials and she says, "Not really! I am open to doing saas bahu serials because long ago Naseer sir told me 'If you are a good actor, no matter what the medium is, no matter what you are doing, you will be recognised.' So I follow that. Agent Raghav, and Yudh happened by chance," says Aahana, who is doing a web series these days."I think web series are the future of movie making. Another interesting movie that I have done recently is Prakash Jha's Lipstick Waale Sapne with Ratna Pathak Shah and Konkana Sen Sharma. The English title for the movie is Lipstick Under My Burka."