Posted:
.When Shivaji Satam announced
that he wants to close his account
as ACP Pradyuman in the longrunning detective series CID, it
sent shock waves in TV circles.
Even Barun Sobti's decision to
quit Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
in which he plays Arnav has upset
the followers of the show. A few
days ago, Sriti Jha's character Sia
died in Saubhagyavati Bhava because Sriti wanted to leave the
show. Harshad Chopra who played
Raghav in the same serial also bid
adieu. Buzz is that Karan Tacker
who plays Virat in Ek Hazaaron
Mein Meri Behna Hai is unhappy
with the attention being showered
on co-actor Kushal Tandon and is
poised to quit. Mouli Ganguly is
also contemplating leaving Kya
Hua Tera Vaada.
As important as it is to gain popularity, actors don't have qualms
about quitting shows for the big
shift to films, a better show or plain
boredom. Barun who had in the
past taken a break from his show to
shoot for his debut film Main Aur
Mr Right, finally decided to breakaway completely. He reasons saying
that shooting continuously for 12
hours everyday is taking a toll on
his health. "I want to take a break
and spend some time with my wife
and chill. My film will release next
year in March and I want to be
there for the promotions," he says.
While Satam, who has been the
face of CID for 15 years, prefers not
to comment, sources say that exhaustion, lack of sufficient time to spend with
his family and age factor
led to his decision. However, producer-director
BP Singh maintains that he will not
allow Satam to leave for the simple
reason that "there cannot be a replacement for him." "He is the face
of the show," he asserts. The channel is also apparently trying hard to
retain the actor whose contract is
due for renewal in December.
In the past there have been
many instances of actors quitting
mid-way. These walk-outs adversely
affect the show's popularity and the
producers have to devise plots to
keep the content engaging. However, producer Rajan Shahi, who replaced Mohnish Behl with Sharad
Kelkar as Dr Ashutosh in KTLK
says, "With all due respect
to Mohnish, Ashutosh's
character was bigger
than him and people
readily accepted
Sharad." He adds that even
during Bidaai when he showed
the death of Sara's character, it
garnered the highest ratings
and continued to be on top of the
charts. "A lot of money and energy is invested in building a show
and the characters so it is unfair
that actors after tasting success prefer to ditch the show for
films or other shows,"
he says vehemently.
Sukesh Motwani, Zee's programming head, fiction, says that TV is
still about characters
and not actors. "Most of
the times the character
and the actor overlap because the nuances, the way
they talk, smile etc, are built
into the character. Apart from
one or two exceptions, where
the shows may have got affected
when the actor left, most of them
have continued to do well," says
Sukesh. Even Nachiket Pantvaidya, GM, Star Plus concurs that
none of their shows have ever seen
any dip in the ratings "thanks to engaging content."
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