Asha Chandra had always been a realist. She knew while doing her FTII acting course that she would never be offered 'Heroine' roles. She had a strategy in place. She would try for negative roles. She had the acting skills and a personality to succeed as a vamp. However, destiny had much bigger plans for her.

Asha Chandra stepped into the industry when belly dancing and silver-tinted eyelashes and frosty lipsticks were in fashion. Shashikala and Bindu were her role models and their performances and her intense interest in acting further inspired her to carve a niche for herself as a Bollywood vamp. She comments "I stood no chance of becoming a heroine in the films and thus decided to become a vamp and I was all set for it with a first class first degree in acting from the Pune Film institute."

It was her love for acting that motivated her to train herself at the Film institute in Pune. Later, she landed into the city of dreams, Mumbai, to embark on her acting career. Chandra states, "After I completed my training at the Film institute in 1962, I aspired to become a vamp. I had to struggle a lot for roles then." She did get some small acting assignments in about 15 to 20 films, but she was going nowhere till destiny gave her an unusual break.

She happened to approach Raj Kapoor for a role in his film and he advised her to teach acting to star- aspirants instead. Asha had no choice. She could not have ignored the advice of RK. He himself gave her a break by sending his son Rishi Kapoor and the then newcomer Dimple Kapadia (who was to make her debut in 'Bobby' ) to learn acting from her. Asha was not too sure of the job, but carried on in the hope that something might come out of all that. Her efforts paid dividends. 'Bobby' became a super hit. Rishi and Dimple turned stars overnight and Asha became known as a `Star Teacher'. The success of 'Bobby' pair marked the beginning of what turned out to be a new career for Asha. She set up her acting institute and designed suitable courses for aspiring actors and actresses. She would conduct short term courses, hone the skills of her students, give them practical training, and prepare them for a bad_ mad, and competitive world of films. Her institute gained name and fame among the newcomers. Her methods were pragmatic and down to earth. The course included dubbing training; dancing, fighting, and video camera practical.

Apart from her first star students Rishi and Dimple, the famous stars who came out of her acting institute were Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Akshay Kumar, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Nagma, Anita Raj, Shoma Anand, Chandrachud Singh, Nagarjuna, Rajat Bedi, Chunkey Pandey, Reena Wadhwa, and many more.

Today her institute is 28 years old. Some time ago, she introduced her new students to us. They had completed almost fifty percent of their training. They looked very confident and had a burning fire in their belly to step into the world of glamour and glitz, and shine as stars. Asha has been continuously improving her training techniques as per the demands of modern times.

"Ours is a result-oriented training programme", she says. "I teach the subjects taught in Pune but avoid what I feel is unnecessary". She does not waste time on useless things and emphasizes upon training young people about the actual working conditions on the sets of a movie. " You should be ready to adjust to a lot of change. Your approach should be very flexible, and comprehensive," this is the constant refrain of Asha Chandra.

About the prospects for her students in the film and TV world, Asha says, " Many times, a student with plenty of potential is unable to succeed in films, while there are those who apparently don't stand too much of a chance but they go on to become stars. That is the reason why I don't pass judgements on my students." Training is just one part of the game. There are other factors like destiny that play an important role too.

Asha Chandra classifies her students into three categories, " One, those who are sent by producers for training, and those who have a Godfather backing them. Two, those who really have the personality and a flair for acting; by merely looking at them, you can make out that they have it in them. Three, those who have developed a fancy for filmdom by reading film magazines, and parents of such youngsters want them to come back to their senses."

According to Asha Chandra, a star-aspirant has to be a good human being to increase his chances of success. "It's very important that an aspiring star should be a good, sincere human being", she says. "In this line, even if a person is a good actor, he won't click if he is not a well-behaved human being. Likewise, a good human being, even if he can't act too well, can succeed." Other factors, which Chandra gives much credence, are confidence, meditation, diet, and PR (Public Relations). " I also instruct my students on how they should interact with the press, producers and the directors."

Asha has evolved a 'New Film Acting Course'. She says it is a unique offering. It is holistic in its approach. It works on the external as well as the internal personality of a `would be' actor. It is a unique combination of the modern training methods of film acting that polish the external self of the actor and powerful ideas of Osho that allow one to delve deep into one's inner being and discover one's hidden potential. This approach brings out the best of their creative abilities. Osho says, `Live life as if you are acting and act as if you are living life'. This is the motto of the `New Film Acting Course'.

Asha is all set to launch a new set of trained actors and actresses in the ever-growing film industry. Many among them will become stars in days to come. We shall watch them on the screen and enjoy their superb performances. Some of them will make the whole country dance to their tunes. All this will happen because apart from many other things they had someone like Asha as their Guru who instilled confidence in them through her great training programme and helped them face the rolling camera with ease.

Asha, who wanted to become a vamp because she could not possibly have got heroine roles; has done much better in life. Today, many vamps, heroines, and heroes look up to her as their Acting Guru. The tag of Asha Chandra's acting school helps aspiring actors and actresses make an important statement when they enter the talent market: Here we are. We are very serious about our profession and are well equipped to deliver the goods.