She shot to fame playing the child version of Alia Bhatt in Dear Zindagi and is remembered as ‘Bus 30 rupee maama’ girl for Godrej hair colour ad with Tisca Chipra. Six-year-old Dishita Sehgal is once again in the limelight for playing a central character, Pia, (daughter of Irrfan Khan and Saba Qamar) in the movie Hindi Medium.
Recalling the fun days of shooting she tells you how Irrfan had advised her to eat healthy foods. “Mein noodles kha rahi thhi; Irrfan sir ne bola worms mat khao, healthykhao. Unke saath tyre chalane wala scene jo movie mein hai usse karne mein bahut mazaz aaya. Sab mera bahut khayaal rakhte thhey. Mere saath ludo khelte thhey, dance and gaana gaate thhey,” Dishita tells you
This little wonder was tough to handle on the sets when it came to shooting serious scenes. “There is a scene in the movie with Deepak Dobriyal where she had to shout ‘Dengue machchar’ and Deepak had to have a disgusting expression and take off his footwear to kill it. But every time they shot the scene, Dishita would burst out laughing looking at Deepak’s expression. They had to give countless number of retakes until the director Saket Chaudhay asked Saba to put the chunni on Dishita when she shouts ‘machchar’ to cover her laughter.
With this, Dishita looses interest in the conversation and takes off and her mother, Mamta, takes over the conversation and tells you that everybody on the sets pampered her and didn’t use ‘bad words’ in her presence.
Studying in Grade 1 at JBCN International School in Parel, Mumbai, Dishita travelled with her mother Mamta to Delhi to shoot in the slums of Sangam Vihar and busy Chandni Chowk market.
In fact, it is Mamta who pushed Dishita into acting after a visit to a doctor. “In 2014, I had taken Dishita for her vaccination and met doctor’s friend who found her cute and told me why I didn’t try for commercials and acting. Dishita was four then and would not let go of the idea of acting. She said ‘mamma I want to be seen on TV’. On our second encounter with the doctor’s friend, the lady gave us some leads. After giving auditions for almost a year, she bagged her first big role playing Akshay Kumar’s daughter in Baby,” Mamta recounts who is a full-time mother now.
And there was no looking back. She worked in movies like Baby and Neerja and did commercials for Santoor, Nerolac, Swachh Bharat and special promo of Bajrangi Bhaijaan. For her, only Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan were the real heroes. little did she know back then that Salman Khan too is a Bollywood superstar.
It is Mamta who helps Dishita in her dialogues. “I tell her that there is nothing to fear just go and enjoy yourself. We don’t force her to learn the lines. The director and I explain the situation and ask what would Dishu (her pet name) do in such a situation. She improvises and therefore her acting comes out naturally. The only challenge was to tell her not to be shy while facing the camera,” Mamta says.
