The Rajinikanth sisters have been the newsmakers for the last few months and now Aishwarya Rajinikanth Dhanush has launched her book ‘Standing On An Apple Box’, a memoir which she calls a semi-autobiography. She launched it in Mumbai last week along with Karan Johar and Sonakshi Sinha.
Aishwarya says that Standing On An Apple Box is an attempt by her as an author to present her life story in the form of personal extracts taken from her diary. She talks about the normalcy that star kinds crave for and how often they have been watched by the media even when they didn’t want to. The presence of Sonakshi Sinha was apt to the launch being a starkid herself. “Star child craves for normalcy because they are always surrounded by chaos. I’ve had a lovely childhood except for the parts when I was thrown into the limelight unexpectedly or given more attention than I craved for,” said Sonakshi, on growing up as Shatrughan Sinha’s daughter.
She added that the book is about the good,bad and the ugly of being one of the most celebrated stars down South. The foreword has been penned by Shweta Bachchan, daughter of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, who was also present at the launch. Her presence again was very apt being a starkid herself. Shwetha has also shared her experience growing as the daughter of Amitabh Bachchan in the foreword.
Aishwarya Dhanush, apart from being the daughter of Superstar Rajinjikanth and wife of veteran actor Dhanush, she as individual has achieved a lot to cherish about. The starkid created an identity for herself with her venture in various fields and most evidently with the recent appointment as United Nations’ ambassador for gender equality and women’s empowerment in India. She is a trained Classical dancer and has directed a couple of films. She has also sung in a few film songs.
When asked about how the book was a semi-autobiography, “It’s an experience I’m engaging with to share my memories and experiences that could give an insight into my family, how we live and how we’ve grown up”, she said in an interview with The Hindu.
“Readers willbe amused to see just how normal our childhoods were. It will break a lot of myths around the life of a star kid. Like every parent, my parents too took a lot of effort to give us the best, and to keep things as normal as possible. Of course, it was tougher in our case, and I’m able to relate so much more to my mother now because I’m going through the same with my kids”, she added when asked about her childhood.
She says that she has made sure to keep her children away from the spotlight, in order to let them lead a normal childhood. It’s pretty clear now why both her kids were not shown to the media very often. “They are only allowed to watch their father’s or grand-father’s films, besides animated movies. In fact, they hardly know about any star other than their father and grand-father. This is deliberate. I don’t want them to limit themselves with this profession. Because, that should not happen by default, but out of interest. I would love to see them become a scientist for that matter.” she said.
“I wanted to be a filmmaker since the very beginning, and when I was young, I stood on the apple box to reach the camera lens. I guess that was one incident that changed the way I saw the industry. Because it was magic when you see it through the lens. So, the title of my book had to be this.” she says when asked about the book’s title.
Aishwarya has dedicated the book to the star kids who have managed to retain their sensibility and sanity despite being in the spotlight. “People should understand that this comes with its own pros and cons. We are under constant scrutiny, and people expect only perfection out of you.” she says.