Tonight:
5°c
Meera Syal says daughter can go to Hollywood ... but only after her GCSEs
Jack Lefley13 Jan 2009
MEERA SYAL has put her teenage daughter's ambitions to follow in her footsteps on hold until she finishes her GCSEs.
The award-winning writer, actress and comedian insists that 16-year-old Chameli, who has already appeared in a Bollywood film and glamorous photo shoots, must put her education first.
Chameli, or Milli as she is known, started on the road to stardom with a role in the 2007 Indian movie Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
But her mother, who was behind hit comedy show The Kumars At Number 42 and was made an MBE in 1998, has left her in no doubt that school is the top priority.
She said: "I am proud of Milli and what she has gained as an actress so far, particularly her part in a Bollywood movie which I know she enjoyed filming in Mumbai.
"She got a Saturday place at the Guildhall School of Drama at 15 after auditioning and was the youngest student and has shown confidence on the television.
"She is showing some nice potential, but right now her school work has to take precedence as she has her mock GCSEs soon and then the real stuff next summer. That will have to be her main focus and she is happy accepting that."
Milli has her own ideas about what path her career will take and seems to have her heart set on a career in the entertainment industry. But she is determined to make her own way without using her mother's name to get on. She told AsianWoman magazine: "My parents have said that they will support me in whatever I do and I actually enjoy the same things as my mum, I go to drama school and I will probably end up doing the same degree."
She added: "I wouldn't really want that to affect the chances people give me. I'd like to be my own person, be able to achieve things myself rather than just for being someone's daughter. I'm certainly very proud of my mum but I'd rather be recognised on my own."
Syal, 47, agreed: "Sometimes it can work against you, people assume you've had it all handed to you.
"That said, the way I see it, it's such a competitive business anyway that knowing someone might just get you into an audition, but that is it. The couple of jobs that Milli has had I've had nothing to do with."
Milli is from Meera's first marriage. She also has a younger son with her second husband and comedy collaborator, Sanjeev Bhaskar.
Syal hinted that tradition had played a bigger part in her upbringing than that of her daughter.
She said: "It was a different time. We didn't have mobile phones or computers. Jackie magazine was our entertainment. I don't envy Milli, I think we had a lot less pressure and time to be a child which I don't think Milli's generation has."
She added: "We had the 'aunties and uncles'. I don't even remember any English people coming to our house. Our social life was completely Punjabi.
"For Milli it's completely different. We have friends of all different kinds and her classroom is like the UN.
"You have to learn to give them independence bit by bit so they learn to think for themselves. She's a modern woman and that's what we fought for, for our daughters to have choices."
But her daughter chipped in: "Yeah but I'm certainly arguing for a bit more [independence]. I know it's different to how much my mum had at this age but she can't expect me to hang on to the same traditions that she did because times are different."
Reader views (3)
Give us Satyagit Ray or Slumdog Millionaire anyday instead of the Bollywood rubbish which plays to the lowest denominator. The lack of acting skills and gratituitous violence is unacceptable and sickening romance, not to mention the abscence of any credible plotline is unbelievable. Bollywood is the unacceptable face of modern India, and its about time it's existance was challenged.
- Dhanraj, Basildon Essex, 13/01/2009 21:35
Report abuse
Nothing wrong with a bit of Bollywood veera. In the current doom, gloom and when Hollywood has gone 'dark' and 'sinister'... nice to know you can still watch a dreamy, fairy tale story and escape from the recession and doom and gloom! Bollywood movies are similar to the Wizard Of Oz... one of the greatest movies ever
- Sanjay, Hounslow, UK, 13/01/2009 12:57
Report abuse
Big relief! Thank goodness she's intending going to Hollywood and not the mind numbinhg Bollywood.
- Dhanraj, Basildon Essex, 13/01/2009 10:43
Report abuse
