Page 44 - MASALA Vol 8 Issue 6 June-July 2017

Her e orts must have paid o , for Aushima caught the
attention of leading lm-makers Mahesh Bhatt, Pooja
Bhatt, Rohit Jugraj and the great showman himself,
Subhash Ghai, securing for herself leading and
supporting roles in three lms in quick succession:
Dhokha (2007), Superstar (2008) and Yuvraaj (2008).
“It wasn’t a piece of cake. It was hard work, but I loved
it.” Which brings us to back to the present…
“You could say it was the love of my life that tore me
away from Bombay,” she tells me. “My ancé, Sanjeev
Saluja, had started getting tired of dating from a
distance, so he proposed and we got married. It was the
right time, and then followed our little boy, Aryan, who’s
just one year, seven months.”

“I think I was always supposed to be a mother.
Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor always said, ‘Aushima,
you’re going to make a better mother than an actress.’
I guess I’d always been the maternal one in the group,
the one who looked after the others. I have a wonderful
family, and I love being a mother. Aryan is already an
actor. Look!” she tells me, beaming over a video clip
on her mobile. A good-looking toddler appears in the
screen, and despite his youth, knows exactly how to
play to the camera.
But for all of Aryan’s innocent charms, Aushima had to be
missing all the glitz and glamour of Bollywood, surely?
“Not at the moment,” she says. “This is my life now and I
love it. I also need to get back in to shape after the baby.
If I wanted to go back I could. I still have the contacts, and
I still get called for roles now and then, but I’m not ready
just yet. I could also get into TV, but we’ll see.”

For now, Aushima, however, is choosing to ll whatever free
time she has with managing her own brand Aushima Selects,
an initiative with a team of individuals who are completely
motivated to create a new fashionable lifestyle. She has also
recently partnered into managing an organic household brand,
called Earthology, a curated collection of aesthetic designs for
the contemporary home. “We’ve already opened in Paragon and
Emporium, so things are pretty hectic.”

Aushima is asked to hold still while the eyelash extensions are put
in place. “If you don’t,” Swanti jokes, “you’ll have wobbly lashes!”

Asked what, besides her good looks, other strengths she thought
had helped her make it in Bollywood, Aushima says: “I don’t think
I’m particularly good looking. No, really!” she says, in response

Some of Aushima’s cover page spreads
from her Bollywood days

44 | Masalathai.com