From the stage to the sets

From the stage to the sets

Narayani Shastri speaks about "Twinkle Beauty Parlour"

PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

THE DUSKY BEAUTY Narayani Shastri in New Delhi. It is very presumptuous but true to a level. The female characters in our tele-soaps have become so pretentious, so exaggerated that you somehow presume this pomposity spills over to the actors' real selves too. Throwing tantrums, making faces, dressing up in those gorgeous costumes and jewellery, you feel, as a viewer, that you will be treated to the same scenes live before your eyes. But telly actress Narayani Shastri doesn't carry with her that typical glitz and glamour. There is a rather different kind of air about her, that of an actor who feels she knows what acting really means because she has been on the stage first and the sets later. "Most TV actors do the opposite. But I did theatre first and serials later. Actually, acting happened to me just by fluke," relates Narayani. In New Delhi the other day to talk about her role of Ranjana in the latest serial of SAB TV, Twinkle Beauty Parlour, Narayani says after her graduation, on her mother's advice to "keep busy", and because she "argues a lot", she took up law to study. "I did three years of law, it was so boring and I was just looking for a way out. One day, a friend of mine came up to me with an offer to act in his play simply because the person who was to play the role had backed out at the last moment. I reluctantly agreed but I soon I realised I was enjoying it, so much so that I didn't look back after that," shares the Mumbaiite. Flashing, very parsimoniously though, that half-smile seen often in her roles in serials like Piya Ka Ghar, Kkusum, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, etc., Narayani chooses to talk first about Ranjana's character: "She is a vivacious young woman. She owns Twinkle Beauty Parlour. In spite of a chequered past, she is a woman full of dreams and wants to rebuild her life. She is a very strong woman." Mad About Money Doing just this serial at present, Narayani however is quite active on stage. "I have done a lot of Hindi plays. These days, I am doing a play with Mahesh Dattani. It has been staged in Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur. It is called, 'Mad About Money'. Dattani plans to bring it to Delhi too, but I don't know when," she states. Dattani, as a director, she comments, "is very sweet but knows how to get what he wants from an actor."

As for acting in films, Narayani mentions the Marathi film, Pak Pak Paka. "I featured in it last year opposite Nana Patekar and got good reviews. Let's hope I get more good roles, be it Hindi or Marathi films," she says. But for the time being, she is busy being Ranjana and "hopefully will be seen in a serial jointly produced by Ekta Kapoor and Smriti Irrani of Tulsi fame."