TOI: Plastic surgery common reason for change-KTLK

Accidents happen. You are careful, you get your car brakes checked once a month, you don't talk on the phone while crossing the road, you step aside when you see a banana peel, you try not to upset psychotic people. But still, accidents happen and sometimes leave terrible scars, and you're just supposed to deal with it because that's life.

But if you're in a Hindi soap, that's not the end, and accidents are just minor bumps along the road with no long-term consequences. In a Hindi soap, you get into an accident, disfigure your face and within an episode you are replaced by another actor. The frame freezes on the new actor for five seconds in his first episode, while someone mutters, aaj se X ka kirdaar Y nibhayenege, and that's that. No wearing your scars like a badge.

In which plastic surgeons outdo God

Rakhi Sawant once famously said, "Jo Bhagwan nahi deta, woh doctor de sakta hai." But even she underestimated the prowess of plastic surgeons who work in Hindi soaps. While God more or less sticks to how he's made you, at best adding or subtracting some kilos along the way, plastic surgeons in Hindi soaps don't just change faces, they change height, weight, voice, hair colour, skin colour, everything.

Most plastic surgeries on Indian television have less to do with natural progression of storyline, and more with a fallout between the producer and the actor. Today, an actor wants to quit, or the producer wants him out, and tomorrow he's met with an accident that has managed to disfigure his face, and in comes the new actor.

When Rajeev Khandelwal wanted to quit Kahiin To Hoga, his character falls into a river, is presumed dead and later resurfaces after a plastic surgery in the form of Gurpreet Singh.

Once upon a time, Smriti Irani and Ekta Kapoor couldn't get along anymore. So Smriti's character Tulsi in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi gets into an accident, gets plastic surgery done and makes way for a much, much thinner Gautami Kapoor as Tulsi. Of course, after Ekta and Smriti made up, Gautami's character was turned into an imposter.

Meera, a character in Kasamh Se, burns Bani, played by Prachi Desai, because Prachi wanted to quit the show for films. In comes a plastic surgeon and changes Prachi into Gurdeep Kohli.

When Mohnish Behl wanted a break from TV to focus on his health issues, his character in Kuch Toh Log Kahenge met with an accident, and in came Sharad Kelkar as the new Dr Ashutosh.

In which family members do crazy things

The common thread in all the aforementioned instances of plastic surgical brilliance is that the dead body of the 'presumed' dead characters is never shown, because what if they have to be brought back later? But what if you did show a dead body? How do you rectify that mistake? Now read carefully, because this part is important. You get the dead person back, with the same face, and say that the dead body, which was cremated, was of a person who got this presumed-dead person's face by mistake. YES, plastic surgery on a dead body - simple!

Um, yes. At one point, Kiran Karmarkar was very sure that he wanted to quit Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, so his character, Om, was killed and there was a funeral where Kiran's face was visible. Two years later, Kiran was all set to return to the show, and the makers had to justify the funeral. The explanation - Om's brother had got plastic surgery done on an unclaimed dead body thinking that it was Om and his face was too disfigured to show to The Rest of the family, while the real Om got saved somehow.

Earlier this year, Dimple Jhangiani, who played Nimrit on Amrit Manthan, was shown the doors. So in the show, Nimrit's sister tries to kill her and she is presumed dead. Meanwhile, in a faraway land, a gentleman saves Nimrit, but her face is badly damaged, so he gets a plastic surgeon to give Nimrit his dead daughter's face, which of course wasn't disturbing at all, and was the perfect premise for Dimple to be replaced by Ankita Sharma.