'Sony dumped me because of Armaan Sir'

Jassi (Mona Singh) may be currently giving it back to Armaan (Apoorva Agnihotri) in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin (Sony) with the help of boyfriend Nandu (Gaurav Ghera).

While her blast from the past Purab (Sameer Soni) is still asked the question: will you be back in Jassi's life? To which he replies, "I hope so."

Model-turned-actor Soni who played Purab, Jassi's love interest, made a sudden exit from the daily serial in November. He was shown to have dumped Jassi and walked off.

This is what was depicted on-screen. Off-screen however, the growing popularity of his character —  on par with Armaan — was taking everyone by surprise.

Viewers may recall that Soni entered the show as Purab in March last year. He was the new man in Jassi's life.

Post-Armaan's (Apoorva Agnihotri) engagement with Mallika (Rakshanda Khan), a crestfallen Jassi wanted to get away from Gulmohur House (Armaan's fashion house) for a while. Around this time she was introduced to Purab, an introvertish, self-made man.

Says Soni, "I loved playing the character of Purab. But there were certain aspects to the show and Purab had to be shown making an exit."

Apparently in the original story (Jassi is an adaptation of the Colombian series Yo Soy Betty La Fea) there was no persona on the lines of Purab.

The show has had several guest characters, not in the original storyline. Purab was one of them.

"I was taken as a guest character for five episodes. But after these episodes, I was recalled in the show. Then again I was shown leaving a note and doing a disappearing act from Jassi's life only to be back again till I made the final exit."

What's interesting is that when the channel conducted a poll on who Jassi should go back to — Armaan or Purab — an overwhelming majority wanted Jassi to go to Purab!

"This was a rather unexpected development. Purab was becoming too popular. But Purab had to depart from the scene as the track has Jassi eventually with Armaan," says Soni.

According to Tarun Katial of Sony, "He left the show because his character got over." The buzz is that Purab's growing popularity at that time had also made Soni a tad hig-handed. Eventually however the track demanded that he had to go.

Soni, who is also seen in Dil Kya Chahta Hai on Star One, was also approached for a role in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii (Star Plus) recently "but the technicalities did not work out," he says.