Father figure: Alok Nath

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Posted: 19 years ago

He came to the city dreaming of glamour. Instead, he became TV's most prolific papa

New Delhi, July 17: He's fathered 30 children in 20 years. Starting from his first major television series in the '80s, Buniyaad, Alok Nath's been every producer's favourite babuji. ''Masterji in Buniyaad aged slowly from 25 to 80. Unfortunately, people remembered me only as a greying old man. In many ways that was my doom,'' sighs the National School of Drama graduate, who came to Mumbai dreaming of glamorous lead roles.

The 49-year-old even played daddy to actors older than him—Kanwaljit Singh and Dalip Tahil (Buniyaad), ''The only role I ever refused was as Jeetendra's father, because the age difference was just too much.'' A majority of his screen offspring have been young women—Narayani Shastri in Piya Ka Ghar, Nikki Aneja on Astitva and most recently, Reena Kapoor on Sahara One's Woh Rehne Wali Mehlon Ki. ''I share a special equation with both Nikki and Narayani, but because of my age, I don't feel very fatherly towards either of them off the sets,'' he says. The profile of the TV patriarch has changed over the years—from a kurta pajama clad softie to a suave industrialist in business suits. But Nath keeps the tradition of the god-fearing pitaji whose daughters are always paragons of virtue alive. On Woh Rehne, he plays a business tycoon, Yashvardhan Mittal, who goes bankrupt when his ship sinks, but still tries to provide his daughters with basic comforts. ''Someone has to be true to the old days. You'll never see me as the father of a hep young thing. My daughters are usually dressed in salwars and never disobey their parents.'' Perhaps that's why he's Rajshri's preferred papa, having acted in many of their films and serials, most memorably Maine Pyar Kiya. ''Some producers used to say that casting me as the father of the girl was lucky for a serial,'' he laughs. In an era dominated by saas bahu fare, Nath's aware that an old-fashioned family drama like Woh Rehne is a gamble. ''I know that the current trend is of highlights and contacts, but it's time the audience is introduced to a different kind of dad,'' he says.

Unfortunately for Nath, there's been little variation in the roles he's played over the years. Most dialogue writers have presented him with cliches like Beti to paraaya dhan hai.

Off screen, he's eager to shed his paternal image and even avoids going for his children's PTA meetings. What he hates most is being known as a famous dad.

Edited by mtina58 - 19 years ago