She dances like her mother Antonia Minnecola and has a Bachelor’s degree in World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. She writes, and she plays the Tabla like her famous father Ustad Zakir Hussain, and yet Anisa Qureshi’s true passion is making movies.
Having directed several short films including music and promotional videos, a documentary on her father and the ever in demand percussion tour, “Masters of Percussion”, Anisa has worked on several projects including, “What Women Want, “Fun with Dick and Jane”, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, and the Will Smith film, ” The Pursuit of Happyness” in different areas of film making. She was also associate producer of Waterborne-a recent release and an interesting film about the repercussions of a possible terrorist attack on LA’s water supply.
In an exclusive interview with Kavita Chhibber Anisa talks about life as a celebrity kid, why she loves the world of film making, the things that keep her grounded and why its important for people not to be defined by what others think of them.
It must have been interesting to not only to grow up as the daughter of Ustad Zakir Hussain, but also the product of an inter-racial marriage even though your mom is an accomplished Kathak dancer, and so appreciative and knowledgeable about Indian culture.
Well my father was gone a lot because of his work, and my earliest memories are of this exceptionally beautiful, graceful, strong woman, my mother raising my sister and I. My mom really was everything to us. I think I’m a pretty good mix of the Italian and the Indian. My mother has such a deep appreciation and understanding of Indian culture and made it a point to impart it to us.
Even though my father was away, I never felt I was lacking in anything. It was because my mother made it a point to always be strong and to let us know that we were an entire family. That takes a lot of skill when your husband is gone a lot as my father was.
The earliest memories of my mother that I have are cuddling with her and my head fitting perfectly under my mother’s chin. I remember feeling that we were one, and perfect together. To this day we think of the same thing, dream of the same thing at the same time, and I feel we have one heart and our souls are one as well. When I see my mother I see this perfect duality- someone who is independent and strong, yet compassionate and selfless, an intellectual and a dreamer at the same time, and someone who remains strikingly beautiful and graceful. She has taught us by example what it means to be a good parent and a good human being.
Though Italian, she has created the best of both the worlds for her children. An accomplished Kathak dancer, she has put her children first, always. The problem was that while we were her first priority, my sister and I were her biggest fans, and I would get upset if she couldn’t perform at a recital, pestering her to go.
My father did his part as much as he could. I never felt I was either a child of two cultures or that I was missing anything just because my father was gone a lot, or because I had a life that was not like everyone else’s. Growing up in Northern California, going often to India, or traveling around the world meeting musicians of different cultures may seem very glamorous but as a child it also seemed very strange because it does isolate you, and the experience is hard to share with other people.
And yet we were such a strong, close knit family and always felt so much support from each other, that we didn’t feel deprived. In fact my mother would call us the three musketeers and we were as much involved in her dance wanting her to excel as she was in our activities.
We went to our mother’s dance rehearsals just as much as we went for our father’s performances and he too came as much as he could for our piano lessons and our little recitals.
Our mother always made sure that we knew we came first for her, and yet she also managed to pursue her career and we were very supportive of that. In fact I remember feeling frustrated if my mother couldn’t perform. I’d say mom you can’t just be in the house-you HAVE to dance- we were her number one priority but we were also her biggest fans.
Neither your sister nor you became Tabla players, especially since there are such few women Tabla players and then to have the advantage of learning from the maestro himself.
It is interesting that I have some of the greatest moments of clarity when I’m practicing Theka on Tabla. I also love to dance and have studied many different forms of dancing, for many years and have learnt Tabla as well. I personally feel no matter what career choice you make, you must have music, dance or literature and the arts in your life-as a student or as someone who appreciates it.
Having said that I have to add that my father was always very supportive of whatever it is we wanted to do. He wanted us to pursue our true calling and was always worried that we would feel the pressure to follow in his footsteps. In fact my grandfather didn’t want my father to become a Tabla player and my grandmother wanted him to be a doctor. She would send him out of the house so that he wouldn’t be around other tabla players and stop playing. But my father fell in love with the Tabla and ironically the house my grandmother sent him to was the house of a dancer and so for several hours all he did was play the tabla while they rehearsed.
I always wanted to make films. I knew I had a vision and a story to tell. I have always been very visual. I think what attracted me to films was the way it magnified humanity. It was like looking at so many moments that people may find hard to share in real life, or be honest about through a magnifying glass. To share those moments with people was exciting. As a viewer these were the very moments that fascinated me. As I got older I realized that the people who were in front of the camera were telling a story that wasn’t theirs. They were only one part of the picture. I wanted to be the person who brought my vision, my story onto the screen and today I’m in love with production as a whole and not just one aspect of film making.
You have been associated with many big mainstream films. What are the memories from these films and some of the others that weren’t on as big a budget?
You realize very quickly how each film is a different animal. You can apply some of what you learnt from the previous one, but versatility is key. There is also so much learn.
In Memoirs of a Geisha for example, we knew were making a beautiful film and it was great to work with the best of the best-these amazingly skilled craftsmen of the industry. The richness, the intricacy of the sets, the lighting and location were all incredible. People had asked repeatedly while we were still in production-is it a god film? Will it do well?” All I said was I know it is going to look beautiful. We got the Oscar for production design, costume design, and cinematography.
Fun with Dick and Jane was an easy shoot. It was shot in daylight and we’d get served great food all day. The shooting was in this beautiful house in the Santa Monica Mountains, we had great weather and everyone was very pleasant to work with.
The Pursuit of Happyness was great. Will Smith and his family are such a joy to work with. Jada and her mother were there and they treated everyone as family. They were so appreciative of everyone. They are one of the most charitable couples I know. They support so many underprivileged kids and schools and truly extend their resources to help humanity. I have so much respect for them.
Of course it was very interesting then to do small budget films like Carbabes and Waterborne. Waterborne was a very difficult film. We had 17 locations, 20 days and a huge ensemble cast of 30 actors and a budget of 250,000 dollars, but we were a young group and we had a lot of heart between us and worked very very hard to make it happen. In between I was made associate producer so now there were people coming to you with all their problems. Carbabes, a comedy about car salesmen was written by two friends of mine and produced by Ben Rekhi-it was so much fun. These two guys had been making movies in their backyard since they were kids and their moms were so happy that now they were going one step further. People were at my office all the time doing all sorts of things-it was like a huge picnic and we never had so much fun.
I think today small budget independent films are being made in larger numbers and the past Oscars are a great indication that Hollywood too is validating films that had nothing to do with Hollywood. It was a marked departure from big budget mainstream films.
Being a celebrity child has its challenges, but I’ve been told repeatedly by children of celebrities that the famous last name may open the door but then you have to deliver like anyone else and also carry the burden and the comparisons, unlike anyone else!
Its interesting how easy it is for other people to impose higher standards of expectations on the children of successful or well known people. From the time I was a child, as it is, I had set the bar pretty high myself. In reality, I guess everyone lives their lives as they see fit. I have never looked at my life being easier or more difficult because I’m also an artist like my parents. May be the comparisons would have been lesser and things would have been easier had I been a doctor. I also remember that when we were kids people were always trying to put us in a place where they wanted us to say something that they could pull out of context and use against our parents.
We noticed that more when we were younger. They would always try to judge us by what we were wearing or what we had or had not accomplished. I also remember this specific incident in New York a few years ago. I was invited to lunch and there were all these prominent people from the film industry-actors, producers, directors. I was trying to talk to them and making a real effort. I could see them whispering to each other-who is she? They were all “ somebody” and in their eyes I was a “nobody”. And so we sat down to lunch and the discussion on this movie that my father had given music for came up, and I turned to the actress who was in the film and said “Oh my father worked on the film.” And suddenly the word spread that I was Zakir Hussain’s daughter and the whole vibe changed. So while I was not worthwhile for myself, I suddenly became so because of my celebrity connection.
It is an unfortunate reality and we all act as buffers for ourselves and my father because somehow we have this strong intuition as to who are the really genuine people around us.
How has the experience of being a woman in a male dominated field been? And do women pull each other down or do you find support amongst your peers?
In general I have been very fortunate to work with people who respect me as a professional and not because I’m a woman or a man. I think earlier there weren’t many women either in Hollywood or Bollywood in film making. Now as more and more women enter the fray things have become much easier. Men are more comfortable working with other men because that was all they had. Today in all areas of life the partnership is moving more and more towards equality and so men are making an effort to understand women and learn to work with them. I do have to say that the numbers are still less as far as women are concerned and I do miss having more women around me.
I haven’t personally experienced any jealousy or fierce competition myself but I have heard stories of that happening to others. May be some women feel insecure and threatened by other women and that is out of fear and not realizing that if they are good at what they do, they will succeed irrespective of how many others are competing with them.
I’m remembering one film maker who was that-truly fearless-Ismail Merchant, and your family had a deep connection with him.
My first introduction to films was through him. I was a little kid and he was making Heat and Dust in which my father was acting. He used to tease me all the time. One day he was very tired and since he was always so energetic I went up t him and said how are you? What’s the matter? He said I’m very tired. And I said innocently-you should take your vitamins.” He would always tell me after that whenever I was around that he took his multivitamins alright!
In the movie my father was a married man and I was to play his daughter. There was a scene where there is this sandstorm. I was so terrified that I started hollering-and ended up getting axed from the film! Well actually the real reason was I didn’t look Indian enough! Jokes apart, I think it taught me very early on in life that film making was hard work and not romantic and glamorous as it may seem.
I was so fascinated by Ismail-how he worked to bring all the elements together. There is this one story about him that is so true to character. He wanted to shoot in this Palace and would not have gotten permission to do so normally. So he dressed as a Maharaja, and said he was one , stayed a week at the palace and got his shots. He gave my parents these very ornate love seats and I hear how these had been used to smuggle the reels of Shakespeare wallah because they didn’t have the money to export the film. There is no one like him and I miss him terribly.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt professionally?
That there is no substitute for hard work. I remember going to a show with George Lucas’s daughter. We were in the same school and the couple of times that I was near George Lucas he talked about how people come to Hollywood and think they will be a great success within weeks, when it takes work, work and more work to make it. That comment has remained etched in my mind. I also saw that the most successful people there are also the nicest. They work hard and are secure within themselves.
If you were to advise aspiring film makers, what would you say?
Film making is not glamorous. It is hard work and they don’t teach you how to make films in film school! Most people who work in the film industry know that a degree doesn’t mean anything. They don’t teach you where to go when you have a problem on sets. Its all an intricate web of figuring out how to get things done.
Again never be afraid to follow your own instincts. For me too the biggest challenge has been to trust myself and my intuition and move forward with confidence. Go on a film sets and see what it takes, what do you like and then specialize in the area that excites you the most. There are so many different people who come together to make a movie happen.
Have a sound support system if you can. My parents have helped me so much. I remember one time, I was working on a film. It was out of state, and soon I found out that I was not being given the respect I deserved, nor was I being included in the process even though I had been hired as a producer. I wanted to give my best but it was getting very tough to work in such surroundings where people didn’t think it necessary to make me feel part of the project. I started to feel that people were taking advantage of me and was having a hard time. I called my parents. My father said, “Anisa, don’t ever expect to be appreciated just because you think you deserve it. I don’t know how many concerts I have played where I thought I did a great job and the other musician didn’t even look at me. Do things for yourself, do your best and then leave. While one wishes things were ideal, it doesn’t always happen because many people are not smart enough to see how well done things are. Many people want excellence but lack the ability to appreciate it when they do get it.” My mother said to me “ You are not defined by the validation of other people or someone giving you a good review. Its really about doing what you think is your best.” I would tell the same thing to others-don’t think you must conform to fit the rat race. See things from your own perspective and you never know you may become the path breaker for many others. Often what you want may not be what you need.
I was raised to live without fear. It is not easy and I learnt some hard lessons. The fear comes when you are afraid it may happen again- we are all afraid to experience life, afraid that we cant handle it if things get tough or that the bad experience will repeat itself, but today whenever I feel afraid to do something, I go out and do that very thing first and then I’m truly free.