Say hello to the power puff girls!

 

 

 

 

“Disability creates barriers but determination breaks them down. The visually handicapped may not have sight, but they don’t lack vision,” says Tanya Balsara. The older daughter of adman Sam Balsara, Tanya, who is visually impaired, teaches computers to others like her at the MN Banaji Industrial Home for the Blind, Jogeshwari.

 

Reveals Balsara, “Computers and the Internet opened up a whole new world for Tanya. I thought it would be a good idea to expose the inmates of the Home to new age technology through computers.” He donated a substantial fund to start the ‘Tanya Computer Institute’ (at the Home) where Tanya teaches.

 

Tanya says her computer knowledge has opened a whole new world for her. “With the help of screen reader software JAWS, I can surf the Net, read emails, and even chat with people,” she says.  

 

Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disorder, at an early age, Tanya not only helps her dad at his work but also runs her own HAM radio station — Tanya Balsara Corporation!

 

 

 

 

 

If 2003 and 2004 were the years of the two Patels, Ashmit and Upen, respectively, 2005 saw the arrival of English cricketer Usmaan Afzal, who made more news in Mumbai than back home. Responsible for their rise is ‘star’ maker (and actor) Amrita Arora.

 

Probe her on rumours that current boyfriend Usmaan wants to act in films and Amrita says, “This is all rubbish. He can’t even spell ‘films’. Just because he accompanies me when he is in town it doesn’t mean he wants to get into films,” she adds. Amrita insists cricket is Usmaan’s priority and not films.

 

Try to broach the subject of ex-boyfriend Ashmit and you get a curt, “I don’t want to talk about boyfriends and relationships; I’d rather talk about my films,” even before you can say Patel. Add let’s not even get talking about marriage, shall we? “It’s irritating when people talk about marriage the minute you’re in a relationship. It’s definitely not on the cards anytime soon,” she says. “Both of us still have a lot of proving to do in our careers. Mine is just taking off now, and I’d like to space things out a bit,” says Amrita.

 

2006 promises to take Amrita to a new high. Kick-starting the first of her four releases is producer Sohail Khan’s ‘Fight Club’. “If there is an element of the girl-next-door in ‘Fight Club’, ‘Deha’ is about a younger girl married to an older man,” she reveals.

 

 

 

 

Vidya Prabhu
 
She has dabbled in theatre and films for a while now; she was even a VJ. Ishita Arun may have disappeared from the limelight for the past few months, but with good reason — she has been globetrotting. “No, it was no vacation,” laughs Ishita, who is just back in Mumbai after a three-month stint in Australia and New Zealand where she played the lead role of Ayesha Merchant in the famed musical ‘The Merchants of Bollywood’.

 

Written and directed by Australian Toby Gough, the musical is choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant based on her life. “It’s Vaibhavi’s baby,” says Ishita. “When she approached me for the lead, I was humbled.”

 

It may have been a a whirlwind tour, but Ishita insists it was just hard work. “I got exactly one week to rehearse for the tandav performance that makes up the second half of this two hour musical,” she says. She goes on to recollect her ‘bad hair days’ (as she puts it) and how she couldn’t let it affect the show. “There are no second takes in theatre,” she says.  “So, it became terribly important that I get everything right.”

 

What does ‘Bollywood’ mean to her? “Bollywood is a lifestyle I want to be apart of. It’s a culture that leaves no one unaffected. You like it or you don’t, but you definitely cannot ignore it.”