She’s happy to be mean-Ashita [Malti]

Most young girls wanting to make it big on TV prefer a Balaji show to kickstart their careers. And if they are lucky enough to get a break they prefer to stay on in the Balaji camp as long as they can. But in Ashita Dhawan's case, the scenario is different. She started her career with Balaji's Kayamath nearly three years ago. Since it was a DD show her debut went almost unnoticed. But even one-and-a-half-year long innings in Kesar also didn't help her career. Finally she stepped out of Balaji and Ashita says things started looking up for her.

"I too believed that Balaji is the safest bet which helps make your career. But in my case things didn't progress for a long time. I had an interesting track with Yash (Tonk) in Kesar but I didn't get noticed or people didn't talk about me because the character was not etched out well. Still I stayed put with the banner because I was new and wanted to learn as much as I could," she says, adding, "When you are a beginner you wouldn't like to quit a show and remain without work because you don't know when and how the next assignment will come your way. But finally I gave up and stepped out of Balaji and better work started coming my way."

Betiyaan and Saathi Re were the two shows she did after quitting Balaji. "But I was waiting for something big to happen which finally happened with Babul Ka Sapna…Bidaai. I don't know where Rajan (Shahi, the show's producer-director) saw me but he said he wanted me to work in his show and asked me to do a look test. I think playing Malti in Bidaai is the best thing to happen in my career. Suddenly I got noticed and people started talking about the character," she says.

Malti is not a negative character but hovers between negative and positive. "I would say she is subtly negative because she plays games with people and behaves differently with different people," adds Ashita.

"She is scared of her in-laws but dominates her husband. She loves money, gossip and power. But she is cute and likable. Malti is not like the typical vamp found in daily shows," she continues. Ashita feels playing an outright negative character is quite easy. "But playing a character like Malti is difficult because she has many shades and different equations with different people with as many as four variations in one scene. I am having a great time playing the role. It's really creatively satisfying," says Ashita who is playing a positive role in Zaara. "It's a normal positive role with a lot of crying. Shirin is a rich girl who is in love with Farhan, a bad guy whom she met in London. But he doesn't love her. Instead he wants a share of her family's wealth," she adds.

Had Ashita not become an actor, she would have been an aerobics trainer. She was fond of dancing, aerobics and yoga. She developed an interest in the profession after seeing her cousin Rinku (now Mrs Kiran Karmarkar) acting in serials and decided to follow in her footsteps.

"I was quite shaky in the beginning but Mr Ken Ghosh inspired a lot of confidence in me. He said I can become a successful actor," she recalls. Ashita says she is a very warm and energetic person. "I am the life of a party, get along well people and talk easily to anyone for hours," she says. She is also a party animal and loves to party every Saturday night.

"Saturday night partying is a must for me to relax and unwind," she reveals. But she does not party with her colleagues from the TV industry. "It's my old non-industry friends who I party with," she adds. Ashita has been through the phase of crushes and puppy love. "That stuff happens in college. It's great fun but I am through all of that. Right now I am concentrating on my work and love can wait for a few years more. There is still time for matters of heart," she ends candidly.

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