Interview--Ali Merchant--MR NICE GUY

Weren't you sceptical about replacing Harshad Chopra on AmberDhara? No. I liked the role. The show is hardly a month old so it's as good as starting the char- acter from scratch. I didn't watch it when Harshad was playing Akshat, so I have a fresh take on the character. Are you changing anything about Akshat? I'm trying to make him a lot more fun and energetic. Who do you get along better with? Amber or Dhara? Obviously both of them! They're together all the time.. on and off screen. I can't exactly have a conver- sation with Amber without Dhara being part of it. How's it like playing a positive character? Personally, I love playing bad- dies because there's a lot of freedom. But I guess there's been an overdose of that in Kahaani Ghar Ghar ki. Right now I'm a little nerv- ous.. I hope the viewers accept me as a nice guy. You're hardly seen in Kahani Ghar Ghar ki anymore.. have you quit the show? No, not at all. It's just that there are far too many char- acters in the show. I'm also taking a break from playing bad guy so my character, Bharat, isn't appearing so often. But I'm still very much a part of the show. You've also done some anchoring Yeah, I anchored more than 1200 live shows for Play TV. I'm currently hosting Bollywood Bonanza, in which I don't have a teleprompter. It's tough but fun. After playing the 'bad guy', how was it playing 'scared' guy in Sshh Koi Hai? (Laughs) It's been a lot of fun. I've played the lead in seven episodes so far. But after each schedule of Sshh Koi Hai, I need some time off to get my voice back after all that screaming and shouting. What else are you up to? There's Ek Thi Rajkumari which will be launched soon. It has the look of a Yashraj film and I'm playing a nice guy in it too. So what's the real Ali Merchant like? He's inquisitive, spontaneous and quite child-like.