Posted:
13 years ago
Television's getting more stylish now.... the handsome Kabir Bedi has made his debut on satellite TV with Ganga Kii Dheej
on Sahara One (Monday to Thursday at 10 pm). And he's beautifully
managed to get into the skin of his character — a village thakur, who is
like God to the villagers.
We would have expected Kabir
to choose a more flamboyant role rather than one with a rural setting
for a debut, but he has a point: "That's one of the reasons why I
accepted this offer. I wanted to show myself in a very Indian role, in a
very rural setting, playing this very powerful landlord. I have played
lead roles, negative roles, father's roles and this one adds to my
range."
Television has always been close to his heart. After
all, his international shows including the Sandokan series and Bold
& The Beautiful made him very popular. "I had many Hindi serial
offers in the last few years, but either they couldn't pay my price or I
didn't like the role," he admits.
He's glad with what he's
taken up now. "This is a show set in rural Bengal, in a village where
power is manifested through the use of superstition and false tradition
and oppression of women. It boils down to a village girl's battle
against my character — a landlord who virtually rules the village. And
there's the other character Mahamai, who plays out the rituals."
Ask him about Indian television vis-a-vis the West and he says, "It's
more varied there. They too have family dramas, but they've also moved
to other genres. No doubt their budgets are bigger and so they have a
few more luxuries. But there's a big change here too with a lot of
visual variety."
And what does he have to say about the
all-important word TRP (Television Rating Points)? "Given the fact that
we have the TRP system, it's definitely important. But I do feel there
should be bigger sampling to determine the audience's choice," he says
and then, as a parting shot, adds, "There's just one thing I want to
tell everyone... Watch this show. If you don't like it, stop watching.
But don't not watch it!"
