TOI: Double roles make comeback-Rati

Jallandhar versus MahadevDouble roles had leapt out of the big screen and entered the domain of the small screen with the likes ofSandhya Mridul in Hubahu, Hansika Motwani in Hum Do Hain Na, Hema Malini in Kamini Damini, Gaurav Chananna in Hey...Yehi To Hai Wo, Juhi Parmar in Kumkum, Narayani Shastri in Piya Ka Ghar, Suhasi Dhami and Karan V Grover in Yahan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli and Rubina Dilaik in Chhoti Bahu.

After a gap of almost a decade, double roles are back once again.


While Mahadev and Uttaran have been showing double role episodes for a while, Balika Vadhu has joined the bandwagon with a similar track being played on the show. It won't be a surprise if others too follow suit.

Tina Dutta portrayed the characters of mother Ichcha and daughter Meethi in Uttaran for an entire year. Recalling the experience she said, "Portraying two characters simultaneously in a daily soap is very taxing. Especially when you have to do chroma shoot, you need to change into your next attire in 30 minutes because they have to freeze the frame. Also, a change in character is also about change in your mannerisms, thought process and body language."

Quite naturally, it was a challenge portraying two separate characters together. Brushing aside any suggestions of inconvenience, Tina added, "Double roles help you prove your acting skills as it gives you more space and variation. Above all, it's a big challenge as you need to have loads of patience."
Rupali Guha, the producer of Uttaran said she wanted Tina to play both the roles as she was the face of Uttaran. "I didn't want the show to lose its essence. Kudos, to Tina that she was ready to take up the challenge. However, portraying a double role is extremely taxing in a daily soap as the time element is very short. Also, it leads to increase in the shooting time and production cost as a single scene has to be done twice."

Sunjoy Waddhwa, who has just introduced a double role track in Balika Vadhu, where Siddharth Shukla will portray the character of Shiv as well as Vikram, said, "It's a natural progression in the show, which is aimed at adding the element of excitement. It's a temporary flavour. When I introduced Gaurav Chananna's double role in Hey...Yehi To Hai Wo, it was different because the whole serial was based on double role. In Balika Vadhu, it is just a case of mistaken identity."

Speaking about her stint at playing a double role, Rati Pandey of Hitler Didi fame said, "Shooting a double role was very difficult, especially for me since Zara and Indira had the maximum scenes together. So I had to change my get-up three to four times a day. Also, I had to do the same scene twice. After two months of doing this continuously, I was bored, suffered from anxiety, got exhausted and my health deteriorated. In fact, every member of the unit got harassed. We all heaved a sigh of relief when the track ended." However, she added that she enjoyed shooting both the characters. "Though Zara had negative shades at one point, she was definitely more lovable, but Indira was more enjoyable because I got to experiment more."

Double roles have been pivotal to the mythological serial Mahadev, where the lead actor, Mohit Raina has essayed more than 30 characters in this show.

Nikhil Sinha, producer of the show, which has a triple role track going on at present said, "Mahadev is a mythological serial and we just couldn't get away from double roles. I knew it would be difficult from the production part of view, more so because it is a mythological serial where the get-ups are so elaborate. Mohit Raina takes one hour to dress up as Mahadev, and another two hours to change and get into the skin of Jallandhar. It's a tedious process, but we have no option because the story demands it." The benefit of this labour? People relate to the actor better.

Mohit Raina shared, "For me each and every character is important. It was not easy to play Mahadev, a positive character, and Jallandhar, a grey character, at the same time. I will be pleased if people like and appreciate the efforts we actors put in to do justice to our roles."

Sasural Simar Ka is all set to introduce a double-role track soon. Avika Gor, who plays Roli, and now Jhumki in Sasural Simar Ka, said, "I was very confused when I was told that my character of Roli would die, and I would then have to portray someone totally different from that character. But it is challenging and as an actress, I have to be okay with playing any character. For this particular character, I have to change myself from head to toe. But I really don't know whether Roli and Jhumki will be shown in the same frame." Well, we'll know soon.

But does the double trouble also double up the actors' pay packets? The answer is a clear no. "Their shooting days increase, so the payment automatically increases," reasoned Rupali, while Sunjoy added, "They are only doing one scene at a time na."