Mumbai, Mar 18 (PTI) Actor Bhavana Balsavar says one of the reasons why content on TV deteriorated with time is because it rarely challenges artistes to push themselves. Balsavar, who has featured in some of the most popular TV shows in the 1990s like “Dekh Bhai Dekh”, “Zabaan Sambhalke” and “No Problem”, said she feels sad that it is difficult to get projects which can motivate her to work harder. “Unfortunately I don’t get to work as hard as I used to earlier. Earlier, we had a lot more to do retakes, improve on our performances, rewrite… That isn’t the case anymore as there is a time constraint and due to that we aren’t able to dedicate time to perfect our characters or a shot. That is my biggest grouse,” the 46-year-old actor told PTI.
Balsavar said during her days working on the cult classic show “Dekh Bhai Dekh”, the team would shoot for hours to get a sequence of four-five minute.
“There have also been times when we shot seven days for one episode. Today, you don’t have that luxury as you are rolling out episodes everyday. With weekly shows time was a luxury. Right now, it is more about catching the eye with garish colours and costumes, so that people stay, it has got nothing much to do with content.
“I was once told that if you are dressed normal and plain, people will switch away from us and go to some other channel with bright colours. So if this is the thinking, then this is exactly how things are going to be,” she added.
The actor said it’s ironic that she has been in the industry for 30 years but hasn’t done “too much work”. Balsavar’s TV appearances have been limited with gaps between each project.
She now returns to the small screen with her latest Colors TV show “Spy Bahu”, which pairs her with her mother, veteran actor Shubha Khote.
The duo are seen playing on-screen mother-daughter on the show. “Spy Bahu” features actor Sana Sayyad as an agent on a mission to uncover a suspected terrorist, played by Sehban Azim, but ends up falling in love with him.
“I have always looked for something that makes me happy. My character has to be good, should have various shades, the duration doesn’t matter. What I liked about ‘Spy Bahu’ was that it is a well-rounded character. It has humour but is also highly emotional. That got my attention.
“The show is also so unique. Right now on TV, everything is so mundane, with the same run-of-the-mill kind of stories. But this show is different with a fantastic, nice story. Everything just came together for this one,” she added.
The actor said “Spy Bahu” was one of the rare projects which had a promising character for her to play and where the makers didn’t rely on what she had done in the past.
“A lot of the time I am turned off by what is offered. There are makers who offer me a role saying, ‘It is comedy, please do it? If you are in it, the comedy will happen’. I am not here to create comedy. I can act, enhance, but you have to give me a foundation, a script. And this is limited to not just comedy but everything on TV.
“I don’t want people to come with empty offers. They say, ‘TRPs will dictate how the show will turn out’. But you need to have something substantial at first. It’s not like I haven’t worked for years and so I am desperate now. Thankfully I have never reached that stage,” she added. PTI JUR RB SHD SHD
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