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Rumour has it that Shubhangi Prashar who plays Palchin in Kasuati … is the girl who will win Prem (Manoj Bohra) over. But the actress who recently made her debut in the serial refuses to confirm this. All she is willing to say is, "Prem doesn't like Palchin and hates her for her unkempt looks and middle class background. I really don't know anything about how the character is going to shape up and whether a love track is in the offing for Palchin and Prem," says the actress. However, she doesn't deny the under-current of mutual attraction. "May be in his heart Prem likes her. But as of now nothing can be said with certainty because it has only been two week since I started doing the serial. I have not been given any brief about where the character is headed as far as Prem is concerned," says the actress.

Although she remains tight lipped about her onscreen love-life, she does reveal that she is here to stay. The leap doesn't bother her because she says, "I am quite happy with my role and. I don't think they will make me look older. The creative director will design the look and I will go with it." The leap is said to take place in a few weeks time.

https://www.deccan.com/Sunday%20Chronicle/Sunday%20ChronicleD escription.asp#She%20could%20be%20Prem's%20new%20girl

For 14 months I lived with the coffee machine," laughs Dinesh Raheja. And he's not joking! Part of the team of writers who wrote the screenplay of around 150 initial episodes of Kasamh Se, Raheja got habituated to working after sunset hours till midnight and beyond. "You have no option when you are working on a daily soap that is sensitive to TRP ratings," he explains. That means one has to chop and change according to viewer feedback or unavoidable crises on the sets. Writing and canning a bank of episodes in order to regulate working hours is therefore difficult, if not impossible. But Raheja loved the daily rush of adrenalin. That he put on 10 kilos in the bargain is another thing. "Apart from developing bad food habits, there were other health hazards. My regular activities like yoga, walking, swimming…all went for a toss."

Raheja is not the exceptional case. What he says is the refrain you hear, repeatedly, from those who provide us our daily dose of entertainment. Writers, cameramen, actors, everybody connected with the extremely competitive world of television is a victim of a clockless work pattern. As Iqbal Khan, the intense-looking actor of Kaisa Yeh Pyaar Hain, Kkavyanjali and Karam Apna Apna wryly observes, "There is no IN or OUT time. You just work 25 hours a day."

"I used to be very fit earlier but now I'm not as fit as I'd like to be," rues Ram Kapoor, the increasingly popular Mr Walia of Kasamh Se. "When you are playing the lead role of a daily serial, you can't really take care of your health. There have been occasions when I've shot for 30 hours at a stretch. TV engulfs you totally. If we shoot till the wee hours of the morning, there is no question of having breakfast; and our dinnertime is usually around 1 a.m. But when I accepted the role I was prepared for these demanding conditions of work."

While Raheja and Kapoor found only their weighing machines creaking under them, others have had more serious problems. Sharad Kelkar, the fresh-faced Nahar of Saat Phere and Rudra of Sinndoor Tere Naam Ka, found that, apart from gaining nine kilos in seven months, he had developed multiple health problems because of doing two and sometimes even three shifts a day. "My cholesterol level and blood pressure shot up. I had water retention and a constant feeling of fatigue," he reveals. Nach Baliye 2 was the blessing that came in disguise. Five hours of rigorous rehearsals daily for this competitive dance show helped him to knock off seven kilos of flab in two and a half months, notwithstanding a few sprains along the way. "My wife, Kirti, was the motivating force through the show. She would insist on us putting in that many hours of practice, even if she was burning with viral fever. I have to salute her willpower."

Viral fever, that round-the-year epidemic in Mumbai, which makes no distinction between haves and have-nots, is something most of us have accepted as a way of life, like traffic snarls. You have no option but to take a few days off from work and stay at home till its debilitating effect wears off. Unfortunately, TV stars, not being backroom boys, don't have this option. How can you air a serial called Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi without its eponymous character? Or for that matter any serial without its lead characters? And what happens when not one but three leading ladies of one serial fall ill? As happened on the sets of Saat Phere. The creative team changed the story line so the actresses wouldn't have to overexert themselves-they were propped up for close-up shots while duplicates substituted them in the longer ones! But, in the case of Rajshree Thakur who plays the central character of Saloni, they couldn't do even this. Her condition was so bad she had to be hospitalised for six days. The producers toyed with the idea of tugging the camera to the hospital room but then reasoned there was no point taking close-ups of a sickly face. So the story writers had to do another rethink to explain her absence from the screen till she was fit to face the camera again.

Even story writers are of no use when it comes to reality shows. The contestants of Nach Baliye 2, had to put their best foot forward, aches and all, like Gauri Pradhan, Shweta Kawatra and Shilpa Saklani valiantly did. The first danced despite an injured leg, the second twirled with a hurt rib cage and Shilpa had to smile her way through a missing tooth. Peons to MDs can take sick leave. But TV stars are a breed apart; whether privileged or persecuted it is difficult to say.

Since tough but unavoidable working conditions have become the hallmark of the TV industry, fainting on the sets, doctors administering first aid and actors being rushed to hospital have become almost everyday occurrences. There was even an instance of a tired cameraman falling asleep and forgetting to roll the camera! The blunder was discovered only after four hours of shooting, or rather non-shooting; so the actors had to go through the motions of canning the scene once again. This time they could barely keep their eyes open!

A couple of years ago, Rakshanda Khan was one of those who had to be hospitalised. To her horror, she was diagnosed with kidney infection because in the hurly-burly of rushing around she had forgotten something as basic as drinking adequate amounts of water! "I had been working round the clock. There was a time when apart from acting in Jassi..., I was travelling all over UK for the Champion's Trophy. After that, I was criss-crossing India with a L'Oreal show. There were days when I'd get off a flight and head straight for the studios. My home had become a bed-and-breakfast joint, with, often, no breakfast. But did I have a choice? How could I say no to any of these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities?"

That basically is the dilemma most TV professionals face. How do you say no to career options you've yearned for? What do you prioritise? Your personal or your professional life? Your health or the call of the limelight? Smriti Z Iraani, who went back to work against doctor's orders after a dual attack of typhoid and dengue, and who dons the roles of actress, producer, politician, wife and mother with elan, says her interests lie in all of them. "I wouldn't like to crib or get melodramatic about the pressures of work because it is my decision to function in this manner. Nobody's putting a gun to my head. It is up to me to plan my day. So I skip things like partying and divide all my time between my family and profession." Sleeping at one in the morning and waking up at six is quite the norm with her but the workaholic is proud of the fact that despite her hectic lifestyle she has never had a health breakdown in all these years. "Dengue is something I had no control over. It can happen to anyone," she states dismissively.

Others, however, have taken their breakdowns as wake-up calls. "I've become very strict about not shooting beyond 9 p.m. unless it's absolutely necessary," states Rakshanda. But she still puts in 12 hours a day, seven days a week, excluding travel time. Sharad Kelkar makes sure he does his meditation and 25 minutes of exercise at the gym or on the cricket ground before leaving home. And he says he will never again make the mistake of shooting for two serials on the same day.

Luckily for Ronit Roy, who does two high-profile serials like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kasautii Zindagi Kay his producer Ekta Kapoor, after the initial hiccups, worked his schedule out in such a manner that he is able to lead a more regulated life now. But in 2002, when he first started shooting for the two serials, there was a week when he was on the sets 24/7. Till his body couldn't take it any more and he collapsed. "Pack-up was announced and I went home to sleep - for the first time in seven days!"

Sleepless hours, skipping meals, lack of exercise, a few broken bones…these are just some of the hazards of acquiring overnight fame and popularity. Sometimes, the small screen stars have to make bigger sacrifices like foregoing their honeymoon or even postponing getting married. Decades ago, Dev Anand, an actor always ahead of his time, wedded his sweetheart in a break between shots. (And only the cameraman cribbed because the ring on his wife's finger caused continuity problems!) That's probably what telestars, today, will have to resort to doing, if they can't escape the arc lights long enough. Or they will have to plan their nuptials around public holidays like Ronit Roy did. "I got married on December 25, so my wife and I managed a three-day honeymoon as well since there are a few holidays during the Christmas-New Year period."

Sharad Kelkar wasn't half as lucky. Kirti and he had no honeymoon, and most times the cootchie-cooing couple catch up with each other only on the sets of the serials they are working in. Or at the dinner table.

Iqbal Khan took the brave decision to step out of the rat race altogether at a time when he could have gone ahead by leaps and bounds. Having put in gruelling hours of work, almost non-stop, for more than two years, he felt he couldn't take it any more. So he notified Balaji, Ekta Kapoor's production house, that he was calling it quits by December 25, 2006. "I am not leaving Ekta to join another producer," he clarifies. "I am quitting for the moment to get my life back on track. I am only 26 years old but I've begun to look much older, with dark circles and bags under my eyes. I've also developed a chronic stomach problem. Though I've always been a gym freak, working 30, 60 and even 90 hours at a stretch leaves me no time to visit the gym and my physique has gone for a complete toss. Now I want to get my body back in shape so I look slim and trim in my wedding pictures. I know that, workwise, everything is going right for me just now; but there is more to life than just your profession. All around me, I see marriages breaking up, children going haywire because of parental neglect…I don't want that to happen in my life," explains the handsome hunk.

While every profession has its stressful moments-I once worked with an editor who refused a male colleague leave because, "Your wife is delivering a baby, not you"- those facing the camera for daily soaps have more than their share of it as they have fewer options for juggling time. "I was shooting till my wife's water bag burst," recalls Ronit. But consolation lay in being beside her when their baby was born. Similarly, when Ram Kapoor heard his wife had gone into labour, he completed the scene he was shooting before hurrying across to Breach Candy hospital. "I was with her through her delivery and spent the night with her and our baby," he recounts. Next morning he was back at work. Smriti Z Iraani, too rushed from the sets to the labour room, taking just three days off from work before returning to play the matriarch of soaps.

It's tough no doubt. But not too many television actors are complaining. "I multitask because I want to," asserts Smriti, while Ram Kapoor wouldn't like to have it any other way. "I enjoy my work and I would like to continue having my hands full for a few years more," he states. "Ever since I can remember I've dreamt of this career. Why would I want to wake up from a sweet dream?" asks Ronit Roy who is all praise for his producer Ekta Kapoor. "She is not the monster she is made out to be. Balaji and I have an excellent equation and we both know we are there for each other whenever the need arises," he states, very categorically. Rakshanda, these days, has a severe knee pain with little time to follow her doctor's orders but even she isn't cribbing. "I love it when the man on the road remembers what I wore or what I mouthed in a particular scene or when I get fan mail all the way from Burundi in East Africa. Today, if I am running an event management company, it is thanks to being a known face on the small screen. Television definitely gave me the initial credibility required in business."

Scriptwriter Raheja sums it up succinctly. "It's a well-paying job. One can choose between working at a call centre or television. If you are creative, you choose the latter." And never mind if the coffee machine outlives them all.

Target Group : CS 4 + Yrs ;

For the week from 18/03/2007 to 24/03/2007

https://www.indiantelevision.com/tvr/telemeter/indexteltam.ph p4

Dream merchant Yash Chopra can easily rest on his laurels but his enterprising spirit keeps him sailing ahead with the same vim. Since many decades he's been selling a fantasy world to the big screen audiences' under the Yash Raj Films banner. His films are synonymous with aesthetic delight - picturesque landscapes, larger than life sets, amidst themes of love and romance. And now this iconic producer -director is ready to roll out his dreams on the small screen too. (Things just get better and better for the telly junta!)

Weighing his words carefully, Chopra says, "It's a natural progression for us. A man always wants to fly higher. It's like, if I am writing a script, then I also want to direct and maybe distribute. Also, in today's market nobody wants to share anything with anybody as far as the box office goes. I feel I am not getting my honest share of the pie for my films share. Television has been around for so many years now; and I believe that it's another format of film making. The base is same but the sensibility is different"

Chopra believes that television is just another format of film making and people are now ready to watch something different and good. "We'll focus on fiction and of course love stories which is obviously expected from us. But we definitely want to break some TV grammar." As for now the ace producer-director refused to divulge his big vision. The company has already floated a separate division under the guidance of his son Aditya Chopra.

"We've started collecting exciting scripts which is very important as it's the basic raw material to begin work on. It's no fun doing just one show. Our plan is to roll out many shows. Also, we already have huge software of ideas since we get hundred of ideas for films everyday. Now, we have to see what can fit on the small screen. I would say the base is same but the sensibility is different."

"I believe that the small screen arena is not just demanding but it's also a nerve breaking business. Programmes have to be on air everyday and one can't relax or be lazy about it. In a few months from now, we'll start the production work."

Though Chopra is not too much into watching the current saas bahu sagas, but he's all praise for actors like Sakshi Tanwar and Smriti Irani. Also, he thinks that the medium has grown in terms of production values, costumes and majestic sets.

"My biwi (Pamela Chopra) watches all these soaps. But what disturbs me is that there's too much of negativity on the small screen. We need to moderate this. I believe women should not be portrayed vicious as this influences the audience on a daily basis. We definitely won't do this kind of television but something more positive."

And this coming from this vendor of love and marshmallows, we couldn't agree less.

Ronit Roy is an excited man these days. Especially about the coming week.

For two reasons. First, he says he is looking forward to some good news which will give viewers another chance to see him on the small screen.

"There's a new show I am discussing with a production house. I should know which way the talks will go this week," he says.

This week is also important for him because his character of Inder in Kayamath on Star Plus is going to come into the limelight. "The twists and turns are going to come up this week," he says. "The plot is going to get interesting."

He says he is more than happy about the cameo he is playing in Kayamath. "It will probably end in about 12-13 episodes but it has come as a boon to me. It has given me time to breathe, there are new energies which I have found, as the role is a tangent away from my two bachchas -Virani and Bajaj - the roles I play in Kyunki and Kasauti," he says.

http://us.tellychakkar.com/y2k7/apr/9apr/news_ronit.php