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Homecoming

Chaya Unnikrishnan
Posted online: Friday, January 26, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

She was the small-screen icon when she gave up her career for marital bliss. Five years and two kids later, Renuka Shahane is back in the studios shooting for Jeete Hain Jiske Liye which will be aired on Sony from February 5 ...

With the airdate of your serial coming closer, are youfeeling tense or excited?
I am excited that I will be on air after five years. I want people to watch my serial and respond to it. After all, whatever work one does, it is for the audience, which has to connect with it. At the same time, I am feeling tense because these days everything depends on the TRPs. Earlier that was not the case, so one was not so anxious about the fate of a serial. This time, however, I am really keeping my fingers crossed.

What kind of a look are you sporting in the serial?
My chudidar-kurtas have been designed differently. The kurtas have a princess cut and the dupatta is also draped differently. I have it pinned on both the sides and it is what you'd call chaddar type. My hair is left loose, you know, I have to look younger than what I am. (Laughs)

Tell us why you chose to make a comeback.
I always wanted to come back to acting. But I would have waited another year because my younger son is just two years old. I would have loved to spend another year with my children. However, the role narrated to me by Deeya and Tony Singh was very good and my husband (Ashutosh Rana) also felt that I should give it a try since I had already spent a lot of time away from the arclights. What I liked best about the role was that it wasn't a maa or bhabhi kind which is usually offeredtoactors who have taken a sabbatical.

Is that what attracted you to the role?
Yes. Even the script is excellent and has an in-built leap in it. My character spans two decades and there are contrasting traits in her. She starts off as this nice, lovable human being but becomes bitter towards the end of it. I am playing an orphan girl Anjali who is brought up by Rameshwariji. A businessman played by Ayub Khan falls in love with her and they get married. The story starts after two years of their marriage where Anjali's main aim is to have children but she cannot conceive.

You must have been offered many roles in the intervening years...
Yes. In fact, I had two offers from Balaji Telefilms when Sandiip Sikcand was the Creative Head there, but I turned them down and told Sandiip that the next time he approached me, I would take it up. And when Deeya and Tony Singh came to me with Jeete Hain, Jiske Liye I turned them down too! Sandiip, who was with Sony by then, reminded me about my promise and here I am. (Laughs)

Onceyou saw the shows you had rejected, did you ever feel you should have taken them up?
No. After turning down a role, I have never looked back. I am a pretty unambitious kind of person and for me it is not be-all and end-all of my life.

How much has the industry changed in the five years that you were away?
My God, it's a sea-change. I think I have been away for a long time. In fact, I feel like a novice. When I left I had done only weeklies. Even when I was doing six serials simultaneously I never had to shoot every day. Jeete Hain... is the first daily soap I am doing and I find myself on the sets every day of the week! I was told that actors on television have duplicates and I had a hearty laugh.

So, how was your first day of the shooting?
Oh, I was very nervous more nervous than the day I had faced the camera for the first time in my life. At that time there was no baggage. This time there is more at stake, my reputation and that of the people I am working with.

Have you adapted to the hectic schedule of a daily?
Sort of. But I am finding it a little difficult to accept the change. One has to get used to being more dramatic on screen. There is no time to work on our scenes, its subtleties or nuances. These things have become obsolete. For a person who comes from a different school of acting, I have to fight with my beliefs to express myself more dramatically.

'My first love has always been TV'

Renuka Shahane smiled that everlasting smile in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. Then, post marriage to Ashutosh Rana and motherhood she disappeared from screens for almost five years. Now, Renuka will stage her comeback in Sony's 'Jeete Hain Jiske Liye'. "Motherhood is too huge a responsibility to take lightly. My kids were my first priority then and will always remain so. I wanted to be there for them 24x7, so I chose to go into hibernation," says Renuka. She wasn't spotted much on the party circuit either. "I'm not really a party person. I'm happier going home after work and spending time with my children," says Renuka.

So was her comeback planned? "It was quite sudden. I still wanted to take another year or two off, but it's the role that made the difference. It's a role like I've never played before and I took it up as a challenge," says Renuka, who plays protagonist. What's challenging about it? "The fact that I'm playing a young girl and then an older woman after a generation leap," she says. "The character's transformation is exciting. She undergoes a complete sea-change, so I'm playing many roles in one," says Renuka.

And what are her views on the roles women on TV are offered today? "There's not much to experiment with, unfortunately. There is no chance for growth as an actor, as the character itself remains stagnant. You have to be shades of grey too." Does this mark a comeback to the big screen as well? "Not now, my children are still too young and films would require me to travel a lot. Besides, my first love has always been TV."

Source: The Times of India

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Back after the Break


Today for TV actors, the day to day grind has become a way of life. They are so much into fame and minting money that a breather is out of question. It's like, 'make hay while the sun shines'. Post 2000, after the daily soap phenomenon hit the marquee; this has been the general view of all and sundry. But senior actors like Renuka Shahane, Kitu Gidwani and Milind Gunaji have dared to go on hibernation and then planned a bounce back with substantial roles. So what is it that initiates breaks and comebacks?

"After my marriage I preferred to be a house wife so that I could take care of my kids. Even during this break, I got many calls for shows but I refused as family was my top priority. I have been getting calls from Sandeep Sickand, former creative head of Balaji, who asked me to join them long time ago. But I was just too caught up. I utilised my time well by doing the satisfying job of writing a script on an unique subject. I completed it just a week before getting a call from Diya and Tony for their show Jeete Hain Jiske Liye. So I guess without going to the farm house, I got the fruits," says Renuka Shahane who ecstatically terms her break as quite fruitful.

There have been actors like Amar Upadhyay and Nausheen Ali Sardar, who took breaks to try out their luck in films. But the skilled Renuka, who has films like Hum Apke Hain Kaun to her credit, has no such plans. "No. It was purely preference to family. I was waiting for my younger son to grow up. To concentrate only on films was not the reason at all, as TV has given me a lot in comparison to films," she says confidently.

On the other hand, Milind Gunaji, now seen in 'Kulvaddhu' and 'Saas Bahu' hunk Yash Tonk like to balance TV and films and take breaks to fit in their filmi commitments. "I did 'Asambhav' and 'Elaan', was also shooting for N.Chandra's Breaking News," says Milind. "Actually it is a commitment. It is hard to manage time for other projects when you are involved and committed somewhere."