Ayesha cozies up to Vivek Oberoi

The studio, in Mumbai's western suburb Andheri, is called Manoranjan. The Hindi word for entertainment is particularly apt because the current Sahara One production is all about trying to find the magic mantra to tickle the masses. The film being shot is a comedy called Home Delivery.

All that currently inhabits the sets is a solitary sofa. A black one, on which a young, dishevelled man is trying to catch a nap. He doesn't look like he has shaved for the last two days. His shirt seems like it's worn inside out.

Vivek Oberoi smiles as he sleeps, possibly dreaming of one of those instant song sequences so typical of Hindi films.

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Ayesha Takia tiptoes in and sits next to the sleeping star. She lowers her head and moves close to him. Whether she kisses him is hard to ascertain as her tresses hide that intimate moment. "My god," he exclaims, startled. He yawns and asks what the time is. Ayesha holds her watch to him even as she hugs him.

He gets upset when she tells him it is 11 am. He wants to know if it is the same 11 that comes after 10 and before noon. "Yes," she assures him. He is all shaken up and tries to get up. But she pulls him down.

"Lets go to the bedroom," she says. "No," he answers. "Yaar, I have an important meeting to attend, and I want to brush my teeth first." He clamps a hand over his mouth and rushes off the set. Ayesha is bewildered: "He said no!" 

"You both talk so much nonsense that you forget the dialogues," director Sujoy Ghosh (Jhankaar Beats) cuts in.

"The writer takes so much effort to write a movie and you can't remember two lines," Vivek quips.

"You stop acting smart, Vivek Oberoi!" exclaims Ayesha and directs a well-meaning kick in his direction.

This is as happy as film sets get.

Ayesha tells us Home Delivery is "a romantic comedy with a lot of music." She feels that when you put in honest hardwork, everything else works out.

Ayesha is wearing a cream-coloured skirt and top. Her hair is wavy. And if one wave is out of place, there is a girl to immediately put it back where it belongs.

There is a man dressed in a safari suit, whose only visible claim to fame is yelling "silence on the sets" the loudest. There is a continuity girl who adjusts the blanket on the sofa. Vivek wants to take off his watch as Ayesha has to tell him the time. The continuity girl insists he cannot take off the watch as it was there in his earlier scene. Sujoy assures Vivek that people who wake up always ask what the time is to others even if they are wearing a watch.

The conversation on the sets is relaxed. The director is calm throughout as he patiently explains the scene is supposed to be romantic and so Ayesha has to be more dewy-eyed. Vivek, of course, has to look sleepy.

In the movie, he plays a writer living with his girlfriend.

Ayesha recently completed a Telugu movie with Nagarjuna, and is acting in two other movies, David Dhawan's Shaadi No 1 and Nasserudin Shah's directorial debut Yu Hota To Kyun Hota. She has also just signed Subhash Ghai's Shaadi Se Pehle.

In the last four years, she has had only three releases. She says that is because her first movie Socha Na Tha took a long while to make.

It's pack-up time, and Ayesha gets ready to leave. She can't wait to get home and meet up with friends, and do what girls her age usually do. 

"On the sets, I am treated as an actress. But I like to be treated like a girl, I like to be one of the gang," she says. "And that only my friends can do. If I don't get time for that, I will lose my sanity."