God Roles kills career of actors..... Hope not for Mohit

Remember the late 80s, when shows like Mahabharat and Ramayan took over the small screen - with fans worshipping the TV screen each time Ram appeared or when Krishna motivated Arjun in the battlefield? It is no secret that actors playing divine characters usually attain a 'God-like' status for viewers. However, when these actors let go off their on-screen divinity and go for mortal roles, the same viewers find it difficult to embrace their devis and devtas' lesser, commonplace avatars. We speak to actors and industry people to understand why the on-screen God stereotype remains immortal and whether playing a divine character is a career-killing move.

People see you as god Swapnil Joshi, who played Krishna in the TV series Shri Krishna, agrees that people stereotype you, and often go too far. He'd told us earlier, "It was a different era when I played Krishna. People would consider your character to be God. I was all of 16 at that time, and people would come and touch my feet. In fact, some even brought their sick relatives to me and asked me to cure them. Many people who played mythological characters could not come out of that image. But I knew that somewhere I was only a medium for them to visualize Krishna."
Arun Govil, who is still revered as Ram by people, says, "The Ramayan I was a part of, was quite well-made. The shows at that time had high production values. Of course, as an actor, each one of us contributed, but it turned out to be quite good. People still remember me as Ram. Even now they come and touch my feet. I was recently in Jaipur and two people came and asked me, 'Are you the guy who played Ram in Ramayan?' and when I replied in the affirmative, they touched my feet. Somehow, my image as Ram is etched in people's minds. I think the benchmark set by Ram was so high that the other things which I did after that failed to surpass it. It's because the image of Ram is so strong that I wasn't offered many good roles or negative roles after the show. After that, I realised that it is of no use waiting for roles and I decided to step away. Now I am associated with social groups and am happy."

Blame the actor, not the role? While some people feel that it's the role that doesn't allow you to come out of the iconic image, others feel that it's the decisions of an actor that determine the course of their career. Nitish Bharadwaj, who played Krishna in Mahabharat, says, "When we did those shows, most of us were newcomers. Except for Mukesh (Khanna) and Puneet (Issar), all of us were new. We gave our sweat and blood to our characters and didn't care about the monetary aspects. Money and fame came as a result of our hard work. The serial became a landmark and our careers also got a big boost. While doing Mahabharat, I did Sangeet with Madhuri Dixit and Nache Nagin Gali Gali with Meenakshi Seshadri which did well. I don't feel I got typecast as Krishna, however, I would like to add that when people love you in a particular part, that role somewhere becomes your identity. In my view, we are all what we are because of our decisions. The impact of each person's decision is only known after a point of time. I was doing good films, but my own errors impacted my career. It was in 1992, just after Mahabharat, that I moved to UK. In 1996, contesting elections was another mistake. These two decisions were responsible for me not getting enough roles. Shah Rukh, Govinda, Akshay Kumar and Salman are all my contemporaries and they are quite popular in films. I lost focus and made errors but now I have decided only to focus on films - be it acting or directing them,"

Prem Sagar, creative director of the first Ramayan, who is presently involved with Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali, echoes, "It all depends on the actor and the kind of roles he chooses. Swapnil Joshi has made a name for himself in Marathi cinema and his recent film has proved be the highest grosser in Marathi cinema. He reinvented himself after that role and is quite popular. I feel that an actor has to exercise caution in choosing the roles he does after playing the character."

Fresh faces preferred over popular ones If on-screen Gods can't be accepted in any other roles, then known faces can't be accepted as Gods either. TV serial makers preferred to cast relatively new people for such shows, so that they would look believable on screen. "The actors who were a part of such shows were new and had no particular image of their own. If you rope in daily soap actors, people aren't able to identify with them since they have seen them in a different character. Even if a known face plays a pious character, people would not be able to relate to her. Taking new people is a creative call," opines Sagar.