Dressed in a white sleeveless top with matching trousers and pearl earrings, actor Anita Raj nudges her son, Shivam Hingorani, to show off his side profile. “Mom, you’re too filmy. Let’s just pose naturally,” he laughs, adjusting the sleeves of his beige linen shirt. On the terrace of the 63-year-old actor’s Pali Hill home, the exchange ends in laughter and an effortless photograph.

A few minutes later, Hingorani, 37, points towards a glass penthouse across the neighbourhood. “That’s Sanjay Dutt’s home,” he says, recalling his days as an assistant director on Agneepath. Once Dutt realized he was Anita Raj’s son, the two would wave and occasionally chat across the buildings. It remains one of his fondest memories from his first job in films.

His introduction to showbiz was, however, somewhat less glamorous. “In my first interview, I was asked whether I would serve tea or carry air-conditioning equipment,” he says. “Once you’re on a film set, everyone is equal.” Raj smiles, adding that his first pay cheque is still framed at home.

Hingorani earned Rs 5,000 a month and spent nearly four years working as an assistant director. “I learnt more in those years than anywhere else. There was so much competition that I was simply grateful to be on set.”

Raj’s route into films was almost accidental. She never planned to become an actor. Although her father, Jagdish Raj, holds the Guinness World Record for playing a police inspector in 144 films, she remembers a sheltered childhood. “My sister and I learnt Kathak from Gopi Krishna,” she says. During one annual performance, filmmaker Yash Chopra spotted her and later invited her for a photoshoot. “Those photographs spread like wildfire through the industry,” she recalls.

Offers soon followed. “Tahir Hussain wanted to meet me. Then I signed Prem Geet, which became my first release.” She also credits Hrishikesh Mukherjee with her screen name. “He asked my surname. I said Khurana. He replied, ‘That won’t work. Your father’s name is Jagdish Raj, so you should be Anita Raj.’ That’s how I got my name.” Once Prem Geet became a hit, her career took off.

Shivam’s ambitions, on the other hand, were clearer. By 16, he knew he wanted to direct films, hardly surprising given that his father, Sunil Hingorani, is a filmmaker. He studied filmmaking in New York before spending four years as an AD.

“Everyone in their early twenties should be ADs,” he says. “It’s like army training. You grow disciplined, humbled and you learn to be responsible.” By 24, though, he realised his future in that line would depend on a handful of producers. “That made me feel insecure. I wanted to build something I had more control over.”

In 2018, he founded health company Ace Blend and later completed a two-year diploma in nutraceuticals from Huntington College in Texas to strengthen its scientific foundation. Today, he jokes that he’s “like Walter White from Breaking Bad, except instead of selling illegal drugs, I’m selling nutritional supplements.” The company focuses on evidence-backed formulations and has just launched a plant-based Vegan Omega supplement.

Not surprising, given that he has been no stranger to fitness. At age 59, his mother held a plank for 61 minutes at Otter’s Club after a CrossFit session in 2022. Raj says she had only planned to reach 10 minutes, but then kept going as a crowd gathered.

Of course, that did not come out of nowhere. Fitness has been a part of Raj’s life since she was 12, when she began practising yoga with her mother at home. In her early twenties, she became obsessed with aerobics, rushing to classes after film shoots and earning the nickname “Indian Jane Fonda”. In fact, it was that reputation that led to one of her earliest fitness ventures. “Pammi Bakshi [noted editor at the time] kept telling me, ‘You’re always exercising. Why don’t you release your own fitness [video] cassette?’” says Raj.

“I thought I didn’t know enough. But I already practised yoga and exercised regularly, so we went ahead with it.” The tape was recorded over two or three days at Famous Studios, but by the time it released nearly a year and a half later, she was pregnant with Shivam. “I remember telling the producer, ‘The cassette is called Keep Fit With Anita Raj and I’m anything but fit at the launch.’”

Like many women at the time, she believed weight training was only for men until she met fitness coach Parvez Mistry at 35. She travelled from her home to Colaba every day for five years to train under him, and says it completely changed the way she understood exercise, nutrition and strength. “I fell in love with weight training because I could see the changes in my body,” she says.

It was that discipline, built over decades, that eventually led to the 61-minute plank. “I never intended to set any national record. It just happened,” she says with a laugh.

These days, her routine begins at 5.30 am; she’s at the gym by 6.30 am for an hour of weight training or CrossFit. Then, she heads to Film City, where she plays Kaveri Poddar in Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. “Whether it’s television or films, you have to put in the same effort because the audience knows exactly how you’re portraying a role,” she says.

While Raj built her fitness philosophy through discipline and instinct, Hingorani approaches it through science. Preparing for his wedding to Renu Oberoi in the Maldives in 2021 became one of his experiments. “I weighed every ingredient I ate. Every drop of oil was measured because I wanted to see what would happen if I went all in,” he says. It left him in the best shape of his life, but also convinced him that such perfection isn’t sustainable. Today, he trains four times a week, lifts heavy weights, and gives sleep and recovery the same importance as exercise.

“General fitness is completely achievable with balance. You don’t need to chase six-pack abs.” The dynamic at home has changed since then, too. Raj was the one who introduced him to an active lifestyle, but Hingorani now oversees the family’s nutrition, from supplement schedules to spotting missed meals. “Earlier, parents guided their children on food and health. Today, children often know more because information is so accessible,” he says.

They still train together sometimes. “She surprises me every time,” he says. “She does pull-ups with me and she’s incredibly strong.” They are also planning a family holiday after years. “We travelled a lot when Shivam was younger,” says Raj. “Those are some of our happiest memories.”

One habit, however, hasn’t changed for Hingorani. “Whenever I get a day off, I head straight to the theatre. Nothing compares to watching a film on the big screen.”

There is no single path to success in the film industry. Some use connections, others rely on luck and hard work, while a few gain experience in filmmaking before facing the camera. As the nepotism debate continues, director-choreographer Ahmed Khan’s son, Azaan (23), is preparing for his acting debut in a yet-untitled revenge drama, which begins filming in November in a start-to-finish schedule.

While Ahmed is busy directing Welcome To The Jungle, he’s also focused on finding the right launch vehicle for Azaan. The actor has worked behind the scenes before stepping into the spotlight. “Aamir [Khan] learned direction as he was filmmaker Tahir Hussain’s son, writer Salim Khan’s son Salman [Khan] was an assistant director before becoming an actor. They all learnt filmmaking before becoming actors to reach where they are now,” says Ahmed.

Azaan started as a technician, learning the ropes of direction, production, choreography, and martial arts. “Azaan has grown up watching filmmaking at home. When he was 15 years old, he shot and featured in his own song. One day, he told me that he had learned all [about filmmaking] and now wanted to try his hand at acting,” Ahmed shares.

On sets, Azaan would stand in for actors, reciting dialogues and expressions under the DoP’s guidance between shots. “Only a technician’s son can understand the importance of this. He doesn’t wish to debut as a typical, chocolate-boy or dancing hero but as something completely unconventional,” Ahmed confirms.

Being a director, one would assume that Ahmed Khan will direct his son’s launch vehicle. However, he says that he “will direct Azaan Khan’s second film”. “It is a challenge to make a film on a technician’s son who is from the film industry but I know Azaan will make me proud,” he says.

One of the biggest highlights of Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), which completes 30 years of its release today, was the song Ghoonghat Ki Aad Se, composed by Nadeem-Shravan. Actor Juhi Chawla recalls that she and co-actor Aamir Khan memorably joined forces with just assistants for the filming of the song in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

“We had shot the film and just this song was left. I don’t know why but only the assistants turned up on shoot. Mahesh Bhatt (director), Tahir saab (Hussain, producer), Pravin Bhatt (cinematographer), Saroj Khan (choreographer) — everyone sent theirs. The kids were so talented. Sometimes, you can’t explain how magic happens,” the actor recalls, adding that Khan was “very hands-on while shooting” with his suggestions, as it was his father’s production.

“In one of the scenes, he told me to jump before I started running, to give the scene a comic feel. He kept a poker face in certain scenes, knowing if he did that, the situation and all of us acting would look funnier,” she signs off.