Ashish Nayyar sets up The Village
After completing his dream of opening a luxury resort in Goa, actor Ashish Nayyar is now looking at expanding his business. The Tumhari Disha actor is planning to set up a mini village on Palolem beach, right next to his previous venture – Chattai.
"It's a collection of 50 independent beach houses. I have decided to call it The Village, because it sounds straight forward." The actor says that The Village will comprise of a swimming pool, a health club and lots of facilities.
"It will be quite similar to Chattai, except for the fact that the duplexes will be made of concrete and not jute. There will also be small gardens in front of the houses." In collaboration with his friend Raes Khan, Ashish sees the project materialising some time next year. "It's a huge undertaking and we have to take care of lots of things like licenses, etc. I want to start work on it as soon as possible," he says.
When asked how the response to Chattai has been, he says, "We've got a very enthusiastic response. We have brought the shutters down right now because of the rains, but will reopen soon. Thankfully, I have already broken even on this project, making way for The Village." On the personal front, Ashish says marriage hasn't changed him one bit.
"It's been a natural process for me. It hasn't changed me as a person; I still do the same things as I did before. It feels great to be with the person you love," he says.
Since Tumhari Disha is winding up, Ashish says, "Playing DK has been one of the most interesting things I have done. Call it a weird coincidence, but everything that has happened to DK on the show happened to me in real life. I lost my mother to cancer, and so did DK. He gets a business proposal on the show, and I, too, started Chattai during same time. Also, I remember that when they were deciding on a name for my character, they came up with the letter D. I think destiny had a very important role to play in my doing Tumhari Disha." As for taking up more acting assignments, "For the moment, I want to take a break. All my attention will be devoted to building that township in Goa now."