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Ravee Gupta has been in the industry for quite sometime; but she is being noticed most lately because of Raavan. The challenging role of Ravan's mother in the much appreciated show is making her stand really tall. She talks at length about the role and her impending marriage with long time boyfriend Manoj Bidvai.

Q Why did you choose to enact the aged character of Raavan's mother in the show? It's like Hollywood hottie Angelina Jolie playing mum to Colin Farell who is almost her age in Alexander!
Well that's a sweet comparison. But I would be seen as an older woman only for two or three episodes after which I would be playing my age. It surely was a tough job for me to play an elderly character. But I enjoyed the challenges.

Q Did you go through some special training to portray the character?
I keep trying to find inspiration from my life. I thought about how I would console my younger brother and just poured my heart into the act. Then the emotions came out automatically.

Q We heard that you would be wearing revealing clothes later on…
No, they wouldn't be revealing as such. Everything is planned according to the situation. We are not here to provoke reactions.

Q How did you bag this role?
My serial Viraasat was on air. The production people gave me a call and narrated me the script. On the very first instance, I was nervous to accept it. But then I thought if I am getting a chance to experiment then why not go ahead with it?

Q Raavan has been accepted well by the audience. Does the scientific approach to the serial set it apart from the run of the mill mythologicals that hit the marquee time and again?
The producers have adopted a fresh approach to everything — be it story, narration, costumes etc. In the industry, everyone is scared to experiment. It's good that our producers did that and we are getting the results. The whole approach to Raavan is very unconventional.

Q Your dad Rajendra Gupta is playing your on-screen dad in Raavan. How was it working with him for the first time?
That was one of the main reasons I zeroed down on the role. Our chemistry has worked on television and I am really enjoying working with my dad. He is a great actor.

Q Any interesting incident that happened during the shoot!
Yeah, when I was asked to ride a horse. A horse is a huge animal; it's sometimes very hard to control it. The animal can get temperamental and is very sensitive to noise. I was wearing a silk outfit while riding and I just slipped off from the horse and fell into the water. It was quiet embarrassing.

Q When are you getting married yo Manoj Bidwai!
Our marriage is scheduled for December 17. I haven't yet found the time to make all the preparations because of my shooting schedule.

Q We heard it won't take place in Mumbai but in Goa!
Yes, I will be having a beach marriage in Goa. It will be a traditional Hindu marriage.

Q So where have you two planned your honeymoon?
We will be going to Thailand for our honeymoon.

In an age of regressive saas-bahu drama, this is a gale of fresh air on television. A teleserial, on Zee TV, has taken up the brief for the original anti-hero in Indian folklore — Ravan. "Ravan is such a great character. Bina jane log putla jalate hain," script-writer Chandan Singh frets on phone. "You mention Ravan and people say dusht, ahankari. But give me one instance where Ravana has erred other than his capture of Sita," challenges Narein Jhaa, playing the Lanka ruler.

The serial promises to show the "human face of Ravan" described in myriad mythological tracts as diverse as Michael Madhusudan Dutt's Meghnadbodh Kavya (on the ploy to kill Ravana's unarmed son outside battle) and a Javanese Ramayana (showing how Meghnad's wife Sulochana fought with Laxman to seek revenge and got killed, which is the starting point of Zee TV's saga). "In Tulsi's Ramcharitmanas, when Ravan is struck by Brahmastra, Rama asks Laxman to go and seek knowledge from the dying king. He is an encyclopedia," contends Singh.

Adds Jhaa: "Ravan was a reformist and was liked by his subjects. Haven't you heard of the term 'sone ki Lanka'? We revere Sita mata so much that whoever raises a finger at her becomes a villain. But no one considers that he was taking revenge for his sister Surpanakha's humiliation."

Director Ranjan Singh goes a step further: "Shree Ram puja ghar mein achhey lagtey hain, par aaj ke din mein unko apna lena mushkil hain. Common people will find it easier to connect to Ravan, who is black and white like us."

Think Ramayana and you think Ramanand Sagar. But to connect to the 21st century, the loud drama of the 80s' Doordarshan presentation has been cut out. Ravan speaks human. There is no thigh-slapping, foot-stomping swearing of a bigmouth. He is younger and leaner. Rama looks like a conscientious leader not given to lengthy discourse and beatific smiles, which may win him less devotees than Arun Govil, but helps to keep the storyline taut.

The serial is also raising a toast to scientific progress of the age. "The sages, like Agastya Rishi, were actually great scientists. Why speak of only Ravan's Pushpak rath? There were nine types of aircraft in vogue then, including fighter planes. The Brahmastra itself was a missile. It is well-known that centuries later Leonardo da Vinci was influenced by military accounts in Ramayana," Chandan Singh explains.

The serial also dispels popular myths like Ravan having 10 heads. "It was actually the reflections from a many-faced gemstone on Ravan's necklace that gave that effect," the director clarifies.

Shooting is on at full throttle on the Rs 2-crore set in Umargaon, Gujarat, where the earlier Ramayana team had also camped. The third episode has just been aired this Saturday at 9 pm (repeat at 10 am on Sunday). Rama has picked up the Brahmastra and taken aim, but Ravana has desisted from countering with an equally destructive weapon from his arsenal. "I cannot let Creation come to end," he thinks and embraces his own death.