Article on Sanjana

"MANISH (RAISINGHANI) HAD BEEN SEEING SOMEONE ELSE. HE HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE AND HE CHOSE TO BE WITH HER"

Think aboveboard, think forthright, and think artlessly non-celebrity like. We are faced with good pretences put up all the time, but few pass off as naturally sincere. Five minutes down meeting the mild-mannered Naazneen Patel, Sahara One's Main Aisi Kyun Hoon, and you know why she was the channel's choice. In her late twenties, owning a show as the main lead and making her way back into showbiz and yet, a real woman like many others looking for her personal life to catch up. If you liked Ally Mcbeal, then meet the whimsical Sanjana, our very own take on our aaj ki nari, and peek into the mysterious ongoing of a woman's vivid and whacky mind. She asks me if my hoarse-voiced throat was doing any better, recommends some Ayurvedic pills too and then decides to revert to our chat session. Here's all you need to know and much more on the lady…

She begins telling me about her new act, "After Bhabhi, I was contemplating taking a breather. Meanwhile I was also offered an Aditya Datt film, Good Luck, featuring Sayali Bhagat. But as you know, serials are my bread and butter and a call from Paresh Rawal's production house made me go and audition, thinking things would shape up only two months later. It took around seven months for them to call me again and I got this part."

Naazneen admits she wasn't all too keen on the role, as it was her first positive character role. "Channels don't really prefer to experiment. If you have been playing negative characters, then that is what you are offered. I was sure that the very next day I would be called and told that someone else has been decided upon for the part. Surprisingly though, it didn't happen and things worked out for me," she adds thankfully.

Only someone who has been around to know the workings of the system will tell you this. And Naazneen has been around long enough to know. College saw her being egged into the glam world by well wishing 'potential seers' in the form of encouraging friends. The bug bit her well enough to keep her coming back for more. Being finalized for Miss India lured her on but at the same time, Neena Gupta came along with visions of a television show. Naazneen recalls, "I thought that this was a wiser option, to come on television for even four days, rather than struggling for Miss India and not getting it. At that time we didn't know what a pilot was. The pilot did not get approved and both of them slipped out of my fingers."

As expected, studying was sidelined and fate presented her with another temptation. She was called by Saudi Arabian Airlines to fly and she chose to venture. With a first-timer's salary package that began in the heavens, she knew she could not tie herself down to an office job anymore. "I flew for nine months and when I returned I knew that the only field that would pay me as well would be acting. I didn't want to depend on my parents for money.

So I got into acting again. Neena called me once more, this time for a character role and not the main lead. I had lost my confidence by then. After a gap of nine months, doing a pilot and losing Miss India, you think that you are not worth it. I told them that I wouldn't act; that I didn't want dialogues. They were okay with it, so I resurfaced in Kyun Hota Hain Pyaar with Riva Bubber and Sonal Pendse.

I would sit in the corner, look at the main leads and think that it was my place to be there and with that depression I did not want to deliver," she says in retrospect. Then adds with a giggle, "Yes, the glam bug bit me but I never wanted to be here, but I knew that I have to make it big wherever I am. I had to be permanent, not someone who came and went."

Just when Naazneen had closed the doors to her acting career, Balaji presented Kahiin Kissi Roz making her rethink what she was almost about to turn down. "Thereon, I have worked with the best of people like Sudhaji (Chandran), Sushmita Mukherji and many others who have been in the industry for so long and have never given up. That is the time I geared up and began liking my job," she says.

And here we thought they all are born knowing they were born only to act! Naazneen's honesty puts all those posers to shame. She continues, "Until then, I wasn't glamour struck per se. I was happy doing my work, taking the money and returning home. Then I was called for a main lead for the show Pancham and I thought of it as work and gave it a go."

From Balaji to ex-Balaji? Traitor they'll scream! No obstacles lined her way after this shift in loyalties? Naazneen forgets to be tactful and replies, "I was never close to…" she trails off. She picks up her comment and says intelligibly, "In Balaji the only problem is that if you are really close, then you have to do that little obligation to them. I hope I am not going to face trouble because of this," she laughs.

"Come on it's your loyalty," she justifies. "Even when I was with them, I made it very clear that I am happy with two shows. The best thing about working with Balaji is that the actor does not have to worry about his future. As soon as one show is over, they give you another one. At the same time, they don't stop your growth. At least with me, when I got another offer where I was growing, they didn't stop me. I went well without spoiling my relations with them. So inshallah, if get a call from them, I would love to join them again. In fact, for me, it is the best place to work. It is working with the best in the industry," she sums up.

I ask Naazneen of the bad air between her and Kavita Kapoor over her replacing stint on Yes Boss. As we know, Kavita Kapoor has been the face of the show since it began and when they called for a facelift for the show, Kavita didn't take it too well. She explains, "This happened after I put up an article in the paper declaring that I have quit Bhabhi. I was tired of the character and to be honest, I also was getting loads of other offers.

There was not much to do here and although I loved working with UTV, the writer was one of the best I have worked with and we had a great team too. But I felt that I needed to do justice to myself rather than sit around. Because of the apnapan, I was hanging on there but I realized that I was suffering professionally. I would see Rucha performing and I'd say to myself, 'I wish that was my scene. I would have rocked it in so-and-so way.' I used to feel hungry; I would starve (for work). There was nothing to do there for me," she repeats emphatically.

As soon as she quit, Yes Boss ended her search for work but not for long. She clarifies, "When I began shooting for them, within three days, I saw that they weren't looking out for the character of Meera. They were looking for another Kavita Kapoor, the lady who has been Meera since always. So I went up to them myself and said, 'I think there is a slight problem. You guys are not happy with what you are making me do on the show. And nor am I. Finally it's the product that has to go on and I hold no grudges against you if you have to replace me.'

It is the producer's money and the actors too would suffer if I do not do well. Then they brought Sonia Kapoor in place of me but they were not happy with her also. Now Kavita Kapoor is back on the show. It is a very difficult task to replace somebody because it is not just the character but also the person that people have been watching for donkey's years. I hold no grudges against them; it is nice that she has come back and she is doing well."

Naazneen went on to work with Doordarshan and including her Pancham role, she had two other shows Qeher and one on Sahara called Aavishkar, with her playing main leads in all. Nowhere did movies seep through? She says, "I was never really interested in movies. Today television is bigger than films. If you go and see, I have seen so many actresses who have done two or three movies and if they were to walk on the street, they go unnoticed. Recognition is what feeds an actor; it's what you need.

Today if a television actor was to walk on the roads, even if he is playing a small character, he is more recognized than a film star. You get good money and good fame. What else do you need? There is no declining a film offer, but this is my bread and butter. I know that for six months, I will get a certain salary. It isn't like that with films. You work for about two months and then pack your bags and begin hunting again. That becomes a little more insecure."

On her personal front, Naazneen has had two relationships going sour. What went wrong with her ex-beau Manish Raisinghani? Almost as though she expected it, or maybe she anticipated it, she forms her thoughts and unhesitatingly replies, "Very honestly, Manish is the best friend I have had till date. More than a lover, we have been the best of friends. He had been seeing someone else at the same time.

He had to make a choice and he chose to be with her. I think it is justified because I did give him the time to decide. And I think that he was a nice boy who chose to be with the person who had been there with him right from the top. Even if I was in her place and I was to be dumped because of somebody else whom I just met in the industry, then it wouldn't be fair. So we drifted away very nicely," she rationalizes.

She adds, "Even if I were to meet Manish today, it would be nice. Besides, the guy who I am seeing now, Vikram (Ghai), would not have happened if I had not been through that break-up. So I think everything that happens, happens for the best. Manish chose to be with her and I moved on. It is better not abusing, accusing and pointing fingers at somebody else. When you're in love, you're head over heels and when you're out of it, if you abuse the same person whom you loved, it is not justified. It's like an extreme relationship."

Was this the reason why Manish had denied their relationship when asked on an entertainment talk show? Manish had his own flock of rumors flying around to take care of and maybe he didn't deem it wise to add another one to his list. "Probably it's just that we are two very different individuals.

He is the kind who had taken a professional approach to the matter and wouldn't want to speak about his personal life. Whereas I am the kind who is open about whatever I do. I think he is right in his way and I am right in mine. If he has to deny, then that's what he chooses to do. If I agree to accept it, move on and stand up for whatever I have done, then that's the way I am," she says matter-of-factly.

Since on the matter, I let the dampened yesterday to rest and ask of the brighter today, Vikram Ghai (who's incidentally actress Pooja Ghai's brother) and her. She beams like a flame, "Oh, I am madly in love and God willing, we'll be getting married very soon. We're just waiting to settle down properly as he has just bought a house for himself.

Our relationship is proceeding in the typical arranged marriage fashion with both the families involved and with their permission. And in a foreknown manner, my mother would ask what security would be provided to her daughter after marriage and once she sees that he is apt for her daughter, we will tie the knot."

Naazneen gives us the details, "We met on the sets of Bhabhi (Vikram was the director of the show), when I was going through a break-up and so was he. The unit people took a liking to me and they loved Vikram and they would tell him that they wanted to see us together. They began teasing him and I, on the other hand, was just out of a relationship. For me every man was a bas***d and for me this one too, was trying his luck.

So I was like, no way. One day he asked me 'What are the qualities that you are looking for in a man?' And I was like, 'Hey listen, I know where you're headed to. There is nothing like a casual affair happening with me. If you want to get married to me, you can go up to my mom and ask her for my hand. I am 27 already and today I will marry whosoever my mom wants to get me married to.'

He amazed me by actually going up to my mom and got me thinking, 'He's actually doing it.' He told mom that he was in love with me and she refused, as he doesn't belong to the same caste. Then on, he worked hard towards convincing my parents. He worked hard towards making me realize that not every man is a bas***d; that I could trust him. Then I fell in love with him."

So the resistance has been from her end? Was she welcomed with open arms by Vikram's parents? Naazneen tells us, "It was a problem from his mom's end too because she is a very orthodox woman. Conventionally, she would want a Punjabi girl for her son, but she has seen that I love her son, that I would go out of my way to do things for him. Finally, she has given up.

She came and told me, 'I would never have agreed to this but what more can I ask for my boy? When I see a girl that does everything that makes my boy happy, what else can I want?' She now loves me as much as she loves Pooja or Vikram. She may have also thought that in her family, her daughter is an actress, son a director and then me too being an actress makes things easier. Marrying someone out of the field makes it difficult, as we can't take much time out for family. Here, therefore, there won't be any problems."

Starry-dreamy eyed, self-assured and on that powerfully positive note, Naazneen concludes. With her loyalties devoted to Sanjana and clan for now, we can only hope for the best for her.

By Fatema Rajkotwala