You could say Farah Khan made a family affair out of a private rite of passage, in a way any Indian parent or school would put together. The director put some hard-to-come-by photos and video on Instagram to mark her triplets’ graduation from the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai, and in them you can see the kind of pride and get-ready-for-what’s-next feeling that comes with moving on to university.
But it was more than your typical star-studded post. It was a look at a school community making a show of what its students have achieved, with all the trappings of confidence and formality. If you’re a family on the other side of the screen, it puts in perspective how fast a school career is done and you are left with the decisions that make up an adult’s life.
A milestone for the family and the school
Up on stage, the three of them were handed their certificates by Nita Ambani, while PV Sindhu, the badminton pro, was on hand as the guest of honour. In their blue gowns they put in for a few pictures with their mother looking on from the stands, beaming.
There is a clip of Farah telling her son to hold his head up. It’s one of those unscripted things a parent does in the middle of a public function, and it goes to show that when it comes to graduation jitters and a happy grin, we are all the same.
What Farah’s posts reveal
She let the pictures do some of the talking, but also put in some hard truths. She put it to the audience: which is harder, to put up with them or to let them be? Then she put down: They can fly as high as they dream. And to top it off, there will be a nest here if they need it. It gives the whole thing a certain staying power.
People in the know were on to it. You had Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra and Karisma Kapoor among the first to like it, and some good words from friends.
Some of the better ones:
– Farhan Akhtar: Congratulations to all
– Suzanne Khan: Big big congratulations darling Faru
– Zoya Akhtar with a few heart emojis
Where the siblings are headed next
They have each picked their own lane, as is the way with undergrads these days. Czar is off to Emory in Atlanta for some AI of Business, to put tech in the service of commerce.
Anya will be at New York University to do Economics and Data Science – a mix of the numbers and the theory behind them.
And Diva has gone for Entrepreneurship and Finance over at Babson College, with its outposts in Wellesley, Boston and Miami. You can tell it’s a no-nonsense approach to where capital and growth come in.
It is a case in point for how a place like DAIS is getting its students to tie in what they like with what the world is like. For the rest of the class and the staff, it makes a case for having your electives and aims in order before you go.
The cost question and Farah’s pivot
Farah doesn’t mince words about the part parents have to deal with after the pomp and circumstance: the tab. On a recent Two Much with Kajol and Twinkle, she was candid about how much it runs to put three through college. With some time off from the set, she put together a YouTube show. “I just said for a change, let me start a show on YouTube,” she said, “and that just clicked.”
It was as much for her as for the bottom line. A way to put some of the kitchen table talk out there for people to see, and to offset the price of a good education.
Why this resonates for parents and schools
Going from a diploma to a degree is a lot to take in, money-wise and otherwise. What you see in Farah’s feed works because it is as much about the practical side as the ideal, and because she sees independence as something you grow into.
On the school side, it is about having a plan, being seen and being there for your students. When one of your own is on a campus half a world away, they carry the institution with them in a sense.
Then there is Farah’s own balance. Her last film as a director was Happy New Year back in 2014. She put in an appearance on Celebrity MasterChef and is still pulling in an audience with her cooking videos with Dileep on YouTube.
But the one that sticks with you is not from a movie. It is a mother who means it when she says, “They can fly as high as they dream.” To a student, that is what you want to hear. To a school, it is what you are for. To a parent, it is the whole reason for it.
