Saturday morning at Women Economic Forum was enlivened by the infamous film director, producer and screenwriter Subhash Ghai. The beats of Taal and Ram Lakhan made even the international delegates swing their bodies! But amongst the light, humorous conversation, Subhash Ghai shared his life journey, his motivation to start Whistling Woods, Mukta Arts Production house and his unprecedented insight towards the immeasurable value of mother in an individual's life.
"You have grown up watching my movies, I have grown up making my movies," Ghai says. Son of a doctor, starting his career as an actor, Subhash Ghai has groomed his way from direction to production, giving 12 continuous blockbusters to the film industry. The success that not many can boast about.
"I have made more money than I deserve," exclaims Subhash Ghai. Diverging to the field of education, he feels his "money, experience, knowledge" now deserves to be shared among the "innocent and ignorant kids from the states" who want to make a career in the realm of acting. "I stopped making movies for a while, I studied, researched and designed the syllabus, curriculum, building of the Whistling Woods. Whistling Woods International Institute is now in top 10 out of 1400 schools worldwide."
Sharing his insight on the contemporary issue of Women Empowerment, Subhash Ghai says "Woman is already empowered at home,
kitne thapad khaye hai mom se, kitne looks khaye hai wife se (how many times my mother has slapped me, how many looks my wife has given me," exclaims Ghai. Giving the credit of his personal and professional success to his mother and wife, Ghai states "Education begins at home, from mom."
"It is not women empowerment but gender harmony that I promote," says Ghai. "I didn't name Mukta Arts (production house owned by Subhash Ghai) by my name or some Guru's name but on my wife's name, Mukta Ghai." In his personal life, he has witnessed women achieving great heights. Citing his own school as an example, Whistling Woods has 70 percent of girls as students and includes 70 per cent women workforce and it is his daughter, Meghna Ghai who looks after the institution.
Promoting the value of a mother, Ghai exclaims, "The biggest inspiration of a child is the mother," and it is the figure of mother that is god-like for a child till the kid reaches the age and answers 'Mom, you won't understand!'
Humorous and insightful, Subhash Ghai won hearts of many and initiated a different spectrum to the existing contemporary debated topic of women empowerment.
