TV star quits show fearing moral police
Role required her to play unwed mother
Sapana Patil
| Mamta star Aleeza |
While Mumbai struggles to come to terms with the Valentine's Day vandalism, a young TV actress, petrified of morality cops, has walked out of a career-making role in a serial that required her to play an unwed mother.
When she got the eponymous lead role in Zee TV's Mamta, twenty-something Aleeza—she does not use a family name—was delighted. She had been struggling on the periphery of telewood with just two shows on Hungama TV Majooba Ka Ajooba and Sheesha and a meaty role on afternoon TV was exactly the breakthrough she was looking for. But it took her no time to say no when she realised that her character was to be that of an unwed mother. Aleeza, who enjoys her life as a modern-day Mumbai singleton and has a boyfriend who also works in the TV industry, says that she was "scared of being castigated by society" for playing an unwed mother. Subsequently she was offered another role in the same serial which also she has just quit because that character too gets pregnant out of wedlock. "I have seen people react to such things and I did not want invite any trouble," she said.
According to Aleeza, the story was changed suddenly, and drastically, from the original brief. "I was told that I would play a girl who has run away from her house and come to Mumbai to become a heroine," she says. "In Mumbai, she comes across a character called Karan who she falls in love with. But then I was told that I would be carrying Karan's child..." she trails off before adding: "Viewers take television serials very seriously, and they attribute characteristics of screen personalities to actors. I have seen the way people react to TV actors on the roads."
Though she denied being threatened by any group, she clearly believes that such self-censorship will save her from any possible trouble. When contacted, the associate creative director of the show Aziz Khan said that none of them subscribed to Aleeza's point of view but said that he could empathise with her. "We are Indians, every family here has its own distinct culture and every individual is brought up with specific ideologies and views. There must have been some ideology which led Aleeza to reject the role," he added.
Aleeza, who now has just one assignment for Doordarshan, says that she has no regrets. "We all make our own choices in life, this is my personal choice," is all she would say.
https://www.mumbaimirror.com/nmirror/mmpaper.asp?sectid=1& ;articleid=217200623313359217200623255734
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