| Showbuzz Network | Friday, December 23, 2005 12:1:20 IST While most television actors crib about being known by their character names rather than their real names, the fact is they don't shy away from exploiting the popularity of their character names! Does it make you wonder where the once popular names on television; Amarr Upadhyay, Sweta Keswani and Nausheen Ali Sardar, to name a few, have suddenly gone into oblivion? Of course, the latter was in the news for her breakup with her longstanding boyfriend Vikas Kalantri! Coming back to work, we wonder if these actors are hit by the fact that it's getting extremely difficult for established television stars to get work of their choice as well as command their price! Amarr Upadhyay's overnight fame in 'KSBKBT', his exit from it and his downslide is history now!Nausheen Ali Sardar left 'Kkusum' when the serial took a leap as she was not willing to play mother to teenage girls. She was grabbed by a rival channel for 'Kaalchakra' but somehow things weren't the same any more. Is it that the image of Kusum stuck on even after she walked out of the show or the new show didn't match up to the previous one. Whatever the reason, the serial didn't work in her favour! Today she is doing some film and is said to be desperately looking for work. Similarly Sweta Keswani walked out of 'Kahanii' and Balaji and did a film as a second lead with Sonu Nigam as the hero and her career bombed big time. She is doing work but nowhere close to the popularity that she once enjoyed, courtesy Balaji's 'Kahanii ….'. point to be noted is that besides their popular ex-screen characters, even numerology didn't really help them. Ronit Roy is referred as Mihir and Smriti Irani as Tulsi, thanks to 'KSBKBT'.
Saakshi Tanwar is still referred to as Parvati Bhabhi. Who can forget Arun Govil and Deepika were in the limelight long back as Ram and Sita because of 'Ramayan'. So huge was their screen name popularity that people used to touch their feet wherever they went. Anita Kavar was known as Lajjo Ji and is best remembered for that only. Rajeev Khandelwal is still called as Sujal. After 'Time Bomb' flopped, he is known to be in need of work badly. His broken ties with Balaji have made him wonder what to do next!
Moulli Ganguly quit 'Kahiin Kissi Roz' owing to creative dissatisfaction. She is doing the once over-hyped 'Sarkaar' but unfortunately people still call her Shaina (her 'Kahiin Kissi Roz' character). Divya Seth is playing the lead in 'Sarkkar' but is still known as Manjli from 'Hum Log' and 'Lola' from 'Daraar'. Similarly Rakhi Tandon may not be known by her name but people recognize her as Sweetie from 'Hum Paanch'. Anuj Saxena is one of the few lucky exceptions who made a neat transition from 'Kumkum' to become the highly popular Abhay Kapoor of 'Kkusum'. He even rid himself of that name when he starred in 'Khush Raho Tum Sada' opposite Anupama Varma.
His background and production house, 'Maverick' probably aided him. Juhi Parmar
is happy concentrating on 'Kumkum' and is cashing in on her fame in it to the hilt. She even admits to being happy when addressed as Kumkum.
Most television actors today are smart and smell the coffee before its too late. They avoid feelings of insecurity later by following the age old philosophy- 'Make hay while the sun shines!' They try and take on as many projects as possible and rake in the moolah. Ronit Roy is rumoured to be paid ten lakhs a month for two shows 'Kassauti …..' and 'Kyunki …….'. He could have never even dreamt of this amount on a regular basis in films. Gauri Pradhan and Hiten Tejwani did the Pan Parag ad. Rajeev Khandelwal and Aamna Sheriff did Nescafe Ad.
TV actors even charge, according to the popularity of their characters, for inaugurations or making appearances. So the popularity of their characters is converted into hard cash. Nowadays on an average a daily show runs for three to five years so they get ample opportunities to make money. This helps most of them sustain their lifestyles, a difficult task in show biz. They are buying property, cars at an alarmingly fast rate and are often seen dining and partying at five stars hotels. But the bottom line is- Somewhere it pinches TV stars to be known by their character names! |
