My wife Tahira is a brilliant director and has a great brain: Ayushmann Khurrana

He had extensive stints with theatre, reality TV show, radio jockeying and TV hosting before becoming an actor and singer with Vicky Donor (2012). Now, Ayushmann Khurrana is set to turn producer with a short film, Toffee that has been written and directed by his wife, writer Tahira Kashyap (inset). HT catches up with him to talk about the short film, working with wife and more.

You are an actor-singer while your wife Tahira is a writer. In that sense, is there a confluence of creative minds at home?

Not many know that I was fascinated with Tahira’s writing long back. In 2003, she had written the script for the first play of our group, Manch Tantra, which was about pyre makers. She wrote it when she was just 19 and that was [a] brilliant [thing to write] for such a young person. Now, she has written as well as directed a short film, which Mukesh Chhabra (casting director) and I are producing.

What’s the short film about?

It’s called Toffee and is about two early-teen girls; of which, one is from an urban area, while another comes from a rural background, but they are best friends. How they interact and how their worlds come together forms the crux of the story. It’s in the editing stage right now. It feels great that we are in the same space as far as work is concerned. She reads my scripts while I read her stuff, but she is quite a compulsive writer.

Any plans to work under Tahira’s direction some day?

Abhi toh pata nahi hai (I don’t know as of now). Let’s see how the short film is received. I feel she has done a good job, but a lot depends on how free she is at a given point — from home and her professional commitments, as she’s also a guest lecturer in colleges. As of now, there’s no such plan, but I think she is a brilliant director. She has a great brain, more than anything else.

You are an actor, singer, live performer and a writer. Is there anything else you want to do?

It’s good to have just one talent in your life (laughs). But nowadays, I have been writing columns too. Writing was one talent that remained untapped but I am exploring it now. However, one day, I would love to write a script or something. I have been writing my songs and poems in Hindi. But I know it needs a lot of discipline. It’s not easy.

Like you said, besides songs, you have also been writing columns too. Do you find writing challenging?

First, it’s true that I have been writing quite a bit these days (laughs). Recently, I read a quote somewhere that most of the writers who write well think that they are bad writers. And so, due to that insecurity, they write well and are extra disciplined with their writing. I think it’s a fact — when you believe that you are not a good writer, it gives you an extra push to write well and that’s what’s happening to me also.

You completed five years in Bollywood last month. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

I want to own the space that I’ve been working in. So hopefully, five years down the line, I would have completely owned this space. Here, I must mention that I live in the present and don’t think about the future. That way, I am a practical person. You always make plans, but they could fail. Still, making plans is part of your growth and you work towards it. If you don’t work towards [your growth], what’s the point?

What do you consider yourself first — an actor or a singer?

You know, in the next half decade, hopefully, I’ll also establish myself more as an actor-singer. In the next five years, I’ll try and make my own space [in the industry], and if things go right, of course, it will be great. I think the chaos is less in the space of an ‘actor-singer’. Actors do sing, but they aren’t pure singers till now. But I am glad that Parineeti (Chopra) happens to be one of those who are a pure singer and an actor as well. I would like to rule that space.