Alaya F interview: My mother starts crying every time she sees me on screen, she watches my movies on OTT again and again

What is your criteria for choosing a film? Do you take help of family in this?
All the decisions regarding any film are taken by me and my team. I have never involved my family in these things. Even till date no one from my family has come to my set. I take my own decisions along with my team. I have been very independent since childhood. My family also sometimes feels bad that I do not need them in my decisions. They also want me to make them feel that I need them. This is also a common joke about me in our family. Usually after reading the script in an hour, I know whether I want to do this film or not. I listen to my heart a lot. If I like the story and am sure that I can perform it well, then all is well. Actually I have full faith in the script.

Every parent wants their children to do something good. You are getting films continuously. How do your parents feel?
My parents get very excited watching my films. Especially my mom starts crying every time she sees me on screen. She gets very emotional. He has seen my films more times than anyone has seen till now. She goes to the cinema again and again, she screens my OTT films at home again and again. In fact, she is my biggest supporter. Everyone in my family is very proud of me. When I decided that I didn’t want any of his advice or interference in my career, everyone was a bit uneasy and didn’t believe me, but when they saw that my chosen films did well. At the same time, my work is also being appreciated by the critics and the audience, so they are feeling that everything is going well.

Your parents come from different cultures. What a great experience it is when you get to grow up in different cultures.
In my family, not only my parents, but many other people come from different cultures. My parents’ parents were also from different cultures and their parents were also from different cultures. So many cultures are mixed together in my family. It was very special for me to live in such an environment because we used to celebrate every festival. Every month there was one or the other celebration in our house. This is all I have seen in my life so far, which was quite funny.

You have done only four films so far, but all four were of a different type. Tell us about your journey so far?
My debut was in 2020 with the film ‘Jawani Jaaneman’. Due to Kovid, there has been a gap of 2 years and 11 months between my first and second film. When my film ‘Freddy’ was releasing, it seemed as if I was making my debut again. Since then till now my 3 films have been released in 6 months. ‘U Turn’ is my fourth film. I am very excited about this. Now I feel that my career has finally started. I always wanted to work non stop so that my films release back to back and it is happening now. My journey was a bit halted in between, as there was a long break due to the pandemic, but now I am back.

Your film Utern is a supernatural thriller. Have you felt any supernatural activity in real life?
Yes, I have felt it many times. I strongly believe in ghosts. There have been a lot of small incidents in my life where I thought maybe there is something supernatural going on here. This happened during our shoot as well. We were shooting the climax of our film in an abandoned medical college where no one had gone for 36 years. It was a cut off area and we were shooting at night. The energy there was also very different. Looking at that location, it seemed that don’t know how many ghosts are going to be there. We all felt a different feeling while shooting there. A lot of strange things were happening on the set. But it was a fun experience and we are all safe.

Theaters are open, but your film has still come straight to OTT. What would you say about this?
Right now two of my films have come on the theater and two have come on OTT. Both the experiences have been very special for me. I watch a lot of OTT content. I also like going to the theatre. So both the platforms are good enough for me. Both expose you to new audiences. Although U Turn is more mass level than my other films. Apart from this, I have many films in the pipeline. My biopic ‘Shri’ will release in September. I have Rajkummar Rao with me in this, who is a very talented actor. It is a very good story, which I am eagerly waiting for.