'Esha's the heroine in my house'

Hema Malini has brought together veteran stars like Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor for her film " Tell Me O Kkhuda". And for the first time Esha will be sharing screen space with Dharmendra in the film that will be produced and directed by her mother. "It is an emotional story that families will love to watch. It's USP is the father-daughter relationship," says Hema.

The actress-turned-director has been actively involved in every aspect of her film. She feels that these days one has to work very hard to get the film before the audience in the best way possible. She stresses, "These days you just can't sit back once the product is ready. You have to give it a proper push. Making a film is easy, but taking it to the audience is like running a marathon. Even two years back it wasn't so competitive as it is today. I don't know much about marketing, but I am learning."

Hema debuted as a director way back in 1992 with "Dil Ashna Hai" that had Shah Rukh Khan and Divya Bharati in the lead. Ask her why she didn't direct for so many years and she replies, "I preferred to be with my daughters who were growing up then, and I continued with my dance. Now that my daughter is an actress I have decided to do a film with her."

Hema continues saying, "A lot of people think I'm making a film for Esha because I want her to be the number one heroine. There is nothing like that. Since she is a heroine in my house, obviously I would want to cast her."

And mama is all praise for her daughter. "I like Esha's athletic figure. She works very hard on it. Her style of acting is far better than mine. I am proud of her performance. Unfortunately, her talent hasn't been exploited well. She wasn't getting interesting roles, and she too, was not choosing her roles properly and was seen in many multistarrers. I stopped her from doing that and made this film. I have my production house and we will continue making more films. I want to make nice, sensitive, sensible, small budget films," says Hema.

"But, it is not necessary that only I will direct Esha. If something nice comes up from other banners, she surely can do it, or if we have a good script, we can also find a good director for her. But I will certainly create more roles for her," signs off the veteran actress.