Article: Glycerine tortures actors

Forget scheming mothers-in-law and vamps, it's glycerine that tortures our poor TV serial heroines the most. These reel life tragedy queens have so many tears to shed on air, that they can't function without litres of the irritating glycerine that leaves their eyes sore, itchy, red, swollen and in pain every day.

Soap land's latest crybaby Pallavi Gupta, who plays Bitto in a serial of the same name, has been complaining in interviews about how her poor eyes are not able to bear another drop of glycerine in them, but she has no choice since her script demands her to weep morning and night. And howl she must as Sneha Wagh — who plays the serious lead, battling one hardship after another in Jyoti — reveals, "The secret behind a hit TV soap is in the heroine's tears. TRPs won't go up till the lead cries. The more the tears, the bigger the hit." You need to be in this tearful state for at least 10 hours a day, since daily soaps require long hours of shooting. Sneha, who sheds her fair share of tears says actors have no choice but to use glycerine because, no matter how well you get beneath the character's skin, you can't get your tear ducts to work 24x7. "I can't keep crying the whole day, even though my brain has been programmed to feel miserable as soon as I get in front of the camera. So I use tonnes of glycerine and it's horrible."

The side effects of looking natural on screen according to her are, "Burning, blood red, sore eyes and a constantly running nose." Once she gets home she just crashes as her poor eyes need some rest. Drashti Dhami, who plays the bubbly Geet in Geet — Hui Sabse Parayi is slightly relieved because her character is going through a happy phase these days. "Now the crying has reduced a lot, but during the early days, I didn't just have to cry, I had to howl. Even if I got angry, I had to cry. Now you can't naturally shed so much tears. My eyes got so used to glycerine that tears wouldn't flow even after I used half a bottle. Due to the quantity of glycerine I had to use, especially during close-ups my eyes were constantly puffy, red and would sting." After pack-up and in between breaks Drashti would constantly be washing her eyes with chilled water for some relief.

Ironically, while her eyes are rejoicing the lack of tears now, her poor head is continuing to protest. "My wig is so heavy and the clip so tight that apart from a constant headache, I have to now live with bald patches (the clip pulls at her hair) too."

These poor heroines really do lead a painful life and the sad part is that glycerine, with all its cons is the best option available in the market. Sneha says she has tried something called tear sticks as an alternative to glycerine, but it has camphor in it and makes her eyes burn even more. So she has no choice but to stick to glycerine and use Eye Cool, a liquid used to soothe burning eyes between breaks. Talk about leading a tearful life.