The stork didn't drop her screaming and wailing, into her mother's arms. Meghna Ghai's journey was different. More profound…. As Subhash Ghai declares rather dramatically, "Fortunately, my wife and I were not blessed with a son." In a full-blooded Punjabi household that's BIG. There's a huge sense of loss - and the pressure from the extended family was to go out there and bring home a son, the waaris, who would then seamlessly take the story forward.

But for Ghai, albeit brought up in a world where the sons were the sun and the moon, there had to be a better way. How about bringing home a baby girl? "It was not an impulsive decision," says Ghai. "My wife and I gave it a great deal of thought. Why not bring home a little girl, give her all the opportunities, fill her life with love and care and see where life would take her…. It was our bit towards the cause of women."

So, Meghna Ghai came home, quietly, drowning out the gale of protests from the family. Very soon, from being Daddy's 'Mission Statement for Women's Empowerment', she became their world. And filled up all the lonely corners of their life they never even knew existed.

Today, their little girl sits behind a door marked 'President' at the spanking new Whistling Woods International - a film, TV and media arts institute that's been creating quite a stir in town. "It wasn't a case of Daddy's girl taking over," says Ghai, eyes blazing with pride. "She was appointed to the position by the governing council that consists of luminaries like Anand Mahindra, Kiran Karnik and Aroon Purie..."

So, apart from the deep sense of pride as a father, what has Meghna brought to your life? I ask him. "Immense confidence," he says simply. "A couple of years ago, when I came out with my IPO for Mukta Arts, sceptics said mine was just a one-man show: 'Where's the future? After Subhash Ghai, who?' Today, I can say with all the emphasis at my command…. After Subhash Ghai, Meghna Ghai."

We're sitting talking in Subhash Ghai's new office at Whistling Woods. Like everything about Ghai, it's huge. With a spectacular 180-degree wraparound view of the lush green woods and mountainscapes that girdle Film City. Who knows what dazzling ideas he sold to the Maharashtra government, but he got them to part with 20 acres of pristine wooded area in the heart of Film City. It's caused a lot of heartburn in the film world. You could hear the sizzle and burn miles away!

But then, that's Subhash Ghai. He'll dream only the impossible dream…. And Whistling Woods takes that dream forward. He wants to be an educationist now. He wants to open a world-class film and media school. It's the Dreamchaser's way of saying thank you to life. Who better to take it forward than 27-year-old Meghna Ghai, his best dream come to fruition...

Like Dad, she has a room with a view. But compared to Subhash Ghai's wall-to-wall extravaganza, her cabin is austere, with just one emerald mountain framed by her window.

She's a bit of a surprise. No flamboyance and bluster. No coloured hair either! Just a quiet sense of self. While Dad bounds out to meet life head-on, Meghna Ghai is extremely cautious about whom she lets into her world.

It's early days yet, and they've just about got Whistling Woods off the ground. It's an imposing building, set like a giant white bubble against the enormous greens of Film City. Inside, the phone's been ringing off the hook. Everyone wants sound bites from the institute's young president.

At almost hurricane speed, (four years) she's put together a state-of-the art education facility that at first glance, could rival the world's best. Was all the effort worth it? And, in the first place, did she even want to be heading an institution? After all, people normally head this way after their day is (metaphorically) done.

Meghna disagrees: "I have found my calling. I'm home. Looking back it seems my life was gearing towards this end.''

Yet, as a child, despite being Subhash Ghai's daughter, Meghna was never in the filmi groove. "Mom and I loved movies, yes, but they were the black and white classics. We watched almost a film a day on our video. Other than that, I was pretty much removed from the filmi lifestyle. Dad's a big one for throwing parties, where all the rich and famous came. Being a stickler for politeness, I'd have to come in, say my hello-namastes but then it was off to bed for me. From my room, I could hear the laughter and the singing late into the night, but that was never my world. I was never enamoured by it. More than his parties, it was Dad's music that shook up the entire household. Songs like Aeji oji loji sunoji (Ram Lakhan), or Ilu ilu (Saudagar) would play all day, all night long...

"Through my childhood, Dad was away making his movies and it was Mom I was closer to. We were inseparable. I needed her even if I wanted to take an elevator. I was kind of shy and introverted…. It's not as if Dad was absent from my life, after he finished one of his films, Dad did come home, in the real sense, and we'd spend quality time together. But it was never the girlie things for us. He's a gizmo freak; we'd be pulling apart gadgets and things. He'd show me how they worked. He was always priming me up for bigger things.

"I remember, one day, I made a chocolate cake for Dad and I thought he'd be over the moon; his little girl was old enough to bake! In fact, he was very dismissive, saying, 'Is this what you want to do? Stay home and bake?'

"By the time I was 13," she continues, "I was spending holidays at the Mukta Arts office, seriously handling production for his films. I had to be first on the job; 7 a.m. was my reporting time. In fact, I assisted him for Pardes. He was real sweet. Any ideas I offered, he'd incorporate in the film like in that song, Do dil mil rahe hain… there was an interlude they wanted to fill up with everyday shots. I suggested why don't they eat a bhutta (corn). He said, "Fabulous!" and sent someone to get bhutta. When they were celebrating 100 years of cinema, at the last minute we were asked to handle the Cinema 100 show. Dad threw me in at the deep end. I was very closely involved with that…he saw that my organisational skills were strong."

So, while on the job, any uncontrollable 'behind-the-scenes' schoolgirl crushes on her father's good-looking stars? "Just one!" she laughs. "When Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak released, all the world fell in love with Aamir Khan. So did I! I was about 13 and I got this huge poster of his and put it up in my room. When Dad saw it, he was horrified. He told Mom, "What is this? She's just a baby; what are these men's posters doing in her room?" But once he got over the initial shock, he'd tease me about it all the time. Then one day he called to say Aamir was coming over - (Dad was planning a film with him). Oh! The flurry in the Ghai household! I drove Mom crazy! I just couldn't decide what frock to wear!"

After her tenth, Subhash Ghai decided his daughter was going to London to pursue her studies. Ghai had told me, "My daughter's been a brilliant student, I wanted her to get the best education. So even though it was a huge tear for her mother, she agreed to let her go, but they were constantly on the phone, crying," he recalled with a laugh.

Meghna remembers the initial phase as being particularly hard. "It was the September to December term when London is cold and grey and being all alone in my dorm was hard." Gradually, she made friends and London began to feel like home. Grey skies, notwithstanding. After schooling, she stayed back to do her B. Sc. Honours degree in business management from King's College and then topped that up with an advanced diploma in communications, advertising and marketing. Then she went to work with a dotcom company that was just getting off the ground.

"She did it all on her own, never once did she fling my name around," says Ghai. "Even as a child, very few people knew she was my daughter."

London was a happy place. The work was great. She'd met Rahul Puri, a wonderful guy and they'd started to dream about a life there when Subhash Ghai jetted in with the unit of Yaadein. One day, over a cup of coffee, he asked Meghna to return home. "I remember that life-altering moment," she recalls. "We were sitting at Leicester Square and he told me about his dream of starting a film school, and how he wanted me to take charge of it."

"My heart sank. I told him I was in love with a man and we'd been hoping to stay on, do something here in London. Dad was taken aback at first, specially with that being in love bit…but then, he asked to meet Rahul, and I think he liked him instantly." (He did because Rahul is today VP, Finance and Strategic Planning at Mukta Arts.)

So, Meghna returned to India, Ghai got the two married and then it was back to business…. She recalls, "For two years, Dad and I travelled around the world; looking at film schools; getting a feel of their campuses; studying their curriculum; meeting with the deans. We went to the Los Angeles Film School, the American Film School then travelled down to the Australian Film and Television School. After we'd distilled our curriculum, we sent it down to Australia to have the Australian Film and TV School vet it for us…. Bit by bit, Whistling Woods began to take shape."

Today, not only does the place look good, it smells scrumptious. As you enter the grand central foyer, you're hit by the heady scent of freshly brewed coffee and just-off-the-oven savouries wafting in out of the two well-stacked cafeterias, (a Ghai touch, I imagine); the corridors ring with laughter as a bunch of fresh-faced kids move about from class to class. It's a huge place, spread over 150,000 square feet. They have state-of-the-art digital formats, a 250-seat digital cinema hall with surround sound, separate film and TV studios, a digital photography lab, 3D computer labs, make-up rooms, a design centre, 32 classrooms with Internet and AV facilities, libraries, a students business centre and a whole host of things you couldn't possibly remember on a single walkabout.

Meghna has obviously taken care of every little detail, even the white china they serve the sugary tea in, looks exquisite. The place is uber cool, though the finishing touches are still being given and you can hear the hammers echo down the corridors as the last of the sunny yellow tiles go up in the loos and the chairs get primed for the Karan Johars and the Shah Rukh Khans of tomorrow.

They've managed to rope in virtually everyone from the industry either on their faculty or on their advisory council or on the governing council…if anyone's been left out from the list, it's probably because they ran out of printing material...

So, Whistling Woods is in safe hands. Meghna Ghai is captain of the ship and you can see she's brought it safely to port. But what about her Dad's other passion, Mukta Arts? I ask her, who is going to take care of that?

Meghna points to an awkward little picture on the wall behind her - little stick figures on a page torn off from a school copybook. "That's my little sister, the artist. She's a spitting image of Dad. (The Ghais did such a great job with Meghna that the heavens sent them another little girl - this time the stork did bring her.) "Muskaan's the creative one. She loves the movies, she loves music and she loves people. She's going to take over Mukta Arts one day," she laughs.

On my way down, I get to meet the latest addition to the Ghai fold in the WWI foyer. She's a regular little firecracker…. I think I hear the whistling in the woods.

The Ghai girls are ready to take the story forward...
And how!