In love with poetry and sports-Kanwaljeet

Source Deccan Chronicle.

In love with poetry and sports

Kanwaljeet Singh's career has got a fresh lease of life on the television screen with Ramesh Sippy's rivetting soap Buniyaad.

Kanwaljeet Singh is one of the first few cinema-to-television crossover actors. Those were the days when television was small, lacked glamour, gloss and glitz as well as budgets. But what it didn't lack was substance and variety. "The content was rich. There was a lot of sincerity and involvement," recalls the actor whose failed career on the big screen got a fresh lease of life on the television screen with Ramesh Sippy's rivetting soap Buniyaad.

He didn't look back after that as he went on to do some significant work on the small screen in the 90s. While television grew in stature, gloss, glamour, locations and making and moved out of the four walls bungalows in Mumbai's Juhu, Goregaon and Madha Island areas, content became secondary. "Not only content but also directors," he laments.

"I did a cameo in Jassi. In the three months that I worked for the serial as many as eight directors directed the show. No one knew which director would be on the sets the next day. I didn't even know their names. Tony and Deeya who were the series directors never came on the sets," chuckles Kanwaljeet wondering whether serials are directed by remote control from the offices channels and production houses. Is that why post-Saans Kanwaljeet wasn't seen much on satellite television?

"I didn't stay in touch with the TV industry and didn't even watch any programme in particular. I didn't even know what was popular and why though I heard that saas-bahu serials were quite popular," he says. One of the reasons for keeping away from TV was that he was busy doing films. "I did three Punjabi films, Aparna Sen's 24 Park Avenue and a film called Bombay to Paris. Besides, I did one DD serial," he informs.

Disappointment with television programming is writ large on his face. He also seems disappointed with television's new superstars who look good but are short on talent. "Glamour, swanky cars, high stress level… I don't want to be part of all this. I don't want to burden myself. I want to enjoy myself with my family and hobbies," he says.

He is fond of Urdu poetry and loves playing tennis. "It keeps me fit," says the tall and fit actor whose favourite directors are Ramesh Sippy and Lekh Tandon. Sippy didn't make any serial after Buniyaad. Instead he went back to his first love cinema. But veteran film director Tandon, after a bad experience in films, has been making serials since the mid-'90s and Kanwaljeet is very happy to work with him. "I enjoyed working with Lekhji in Farmaan and Daraar," he goes down memory lane.

"I also had a great time doing Family No. 1, which was my first comedy," he smiles. Though not fond of doing dailies he is however, doing one now. Maybe because Tandon is writing and directing it? "Three years ago I had narrated a story to Lekhji about my uncle Ajit Singh's experience during the Partition. He was touched by it and used it as a core point to develop the story of Aaisa Des Hai Mera which begins in present day London and moves to Punjab but will go back in time to the Partition days.

So my involvement with the project began right then," says Kanwaljeet who will not work non-stop for the show. "I will get breaks as the story moves from one place and period to another."