| Manish Goel |
Lost in TV transition
Manish Goel's character goes AWOL in Bhabhi
Subhash K Jha
Several soaps are set for generation leaps. Ekta Kapoor's Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is preparing to take the big leap at the end of April, Kum Kum is going into a complete generation revamp too.
"But we don't really look at all serial revamps as generation leaps," says Star's Sr Creative Director Shailja Kejriwal. "It's like an entire change of scenario given to an established brand name. The choice is to either wrap up a soap or revamp it. The so-called gen-leap is actually a make-over in the set-up that's successful but saturated."
The one soap that seems to have a 'far reaching' affect, as far as make-over is concerned, is Bhabhi.
"You can say that again," laughs Shailja. "When Dolly Sohi, who played Bhabhi, left the serial to get married and settle down abroad, we had to write off her character and replace it with a new character played by Ruchi Gujarati. All the other characters and actors were heavily affected by Dolly's departure."
But the one actor who seems to be stuck is Manish Goel. He can no longer play Bhabhi's 'other'. Nor can he move out of the successful soap. So he's caught in a frightful transitional turmoil.
"Manish's character is stuck, I agree," laughs Shailja. "It's no longer central to the plot. We've packed him off to America. But we can get him back if needed."
"It's true that I have nothing to do in Bhabhi any more," says Manish Goel. "The production house did try to fit me into the older generation mould. But it didn't work for me. So while the soap goes on, I'm out of the loop for all practical purposes."
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