Growing up in South Mumbai, Armaan Jain straddled two worlds: the cinematic legacy of his mother’s family, the Kapoors, and the finance-rooted pragmatism of his father’s. Armaan is the son of Rima Jain, Raj Kapoor’s daughter and sister to Rishi, Rajiv, Ritu and Randhir Kapoor, making him first cousin of Kareena, Karisma, and Ranbir. “Although we had a film family, we didn’t grow up around film sets,” he recalls. “I first went on a shoot when I was 12, just because my friends wanted to see what it was like.”

Jain’s early twenties, however, were dominated by cinema. After deciding at 16 that acting was his path, he spent three to four years at Dharma Productions, learning production and direction. “Your first impression about cinema is the glamour — it’s all smoke. Once you start working, you realise all the hard work that goes into it, and learn to respect the craft.” The exposure to filmmaking proved invaluable later, as he established Aavashyak, a media company.