TV wants good actors-Article!

Viewers any day prefer the tried-and-tested stars, who are back with a bang on the small screen, to rank newcomers.

Recent years saw TV serials sign mainly newcomers. The fresh faces could give bulk dates and were willing to work for any price and these were reasons enough for producers and channels to get the newbies on board. But one could see deterioration in quality because the new faces were not too comfortable in front of the camera and they clearly needed time to get accustomed to their roles. But in these competitive times, when audiences sit with remote controls in hand waiting to switch channels at the slightest, many of the new faces did have an adverse effect on their serial's performance. Serials started wrapping up in no time. Incidentally, quite a few serials that wrapped up within a couple of months had new actors in them.

Realising the pitfalls of casting new faces in lead roles, production houses and channels are now changing. Around a year ago, we saw experienced actors resurfacing. However, they were still not bagging young lead roles. Like Varun Badola signed on a big show Maat Rahe Tera Pitaah, but his role was that of an older character. Manish Goel returned to TV, but as a host of a reality show.

But now, there's a new wave. The cool dudes are back and in young roles that suit them perfectly. Iqbal Khan's playing the main lead in Sanjog Se Bani Sangini. Iqbal was not seen for at least two years on TV, but the wait was worth it. Apurva Agnihotri, who vanished from the scene, made a comeback with Bidaai opposite Parul Chauhan. Nikkhil Arya has been getting a lot of appreciation for his performance in Tere Liye, where he plays Ritesh, a character with negative shades.

Raahil Azam will be seen in an upcoming show Gulal. Sometime ago, Shakti Anand appeared in Godh Bharaai and even though the serial didn't last long, it gave Shakti a new lease of life on TV.

Viewers are glad to have the stars back. "It's nice to have well- known faces in main roles in a new serial," says Priti Kajaria, a post-graduate student. Nidhi Chauhan, a housewife and TV buff, believes that the trend of newcomers in serials must be controlled. "If they are promising actors then it's fine, but when they are not even good, the serial starts looking very dull," she says.

Rekha Jamnalal, another housewife, adds, "I'm glad to see that the real actors are back. And they are all young and can carry off the roles well. The tried and tested actors are any day better than rank newcomers."

Kumud Bhutani, a bank employee, who depends on serials for her daily dose of entertainment, says, "I can't imagine any new actor playing Iqbal's role in Sangini or Nikkhil Arya's in Tere Liye. There is a lot of depth that these actors have in their acting."

Earlier serials ran for years together, hence the actors were branded with a particular show. But now with a serial's shelf-life becoming much shorter, things have changed. "Today actors can be repeated because those days of Mihir Virani are gone where viewers associated an actor with a particular character," says a creative head of a production house. The need of the hour is to have a fine blend of experience and freshness, but the most important criterion is performance, he says. As Iqbal Khan says, "We can all co-exist. What matters is good content and good acting whether the actor is a new face or somebody with experience."

Actresses on TV, however, haven't been as lucky. In a short span of time they are expected to play mother's roles. But then there's always hope. "It's happened with the guys, it might just happen with the girls too," says a young actress, who plays mother's roles.