MANOJ - Page 2

Manoj Bohra, Kasauti's Prem is following in his on-screen father Anurag's footsteps and is walking out of the show. Like Cezzane Khan (Anurag) he too is very unhappy with the show's upcoming leap and refuses to play a 50 plus man when he is twenty something in real life. "It's really sad. The generation leap is an unfortunate development because I really loved the character. I feel empty because I don't know what I will do next. Of course I will do something better but I feel sad because I was so attached to my character," he says regretfully.

Reminiscing about his role Manoj says, "Playing Prem has been an overwhelming experience. The way he talks, walks, dresses up and behaves makes him an unusual character. Prem was planned like a normal character who would stay around and not make much impact. But I took it to a different level of success. Kids and Page 3 aunties who never used to watch the show became its regular viewers. It was a humbling feeling when Salim Khan (Salman Khan's father) and his wife told me that they started watching Kasauti because of me."

Coming from a theatre background Manoj says he worked very hard on the role. "A character stands out because of two counts, its look and acting. My wife worked on my look and my theatre experience helped me play the character in a different way," he adds.

Didn't Ekta persuade him to stay on ? "You can't force someone to do something against his wish and she understood my point of view. I came out of the meeting with Ekta with a sulky face but then I didn't want to succumb to any nonsense and have decided to quit," he reveals. "A daily soap is not a film and can go on and on. But then a character has a certain graph and lifespan. It can travel from point A to B and after that it's all over. It was not possible for me to play a 50-year-old man," he says.

After he walks out of Kasauti, the actor will be giving TV a break for sometime. "I am getting back to stage and don't see myself doing another television show in the near future," says the 27-year-old actor who bonded very well with every co-actor on the show, including Shweta Tiwari who played his mother. "Shweta is a good actress and a nice lady to work with. She is my age and I did find it odd playing her son. I don't how she is going to play a grandmother," he wonders.

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Hope this clears out all your queries.

Shruti