Rival article on Gauri Tonk

The talented and vivacious Gauri Tonk who made a comeback of sorts with the Life OK show Ek Boond Ishq is not very satisfied with her character's (Nirmala) growth. "I am already very beautiful, so to make me look good on screen is not a major task. I rather want to do characters which push the actor within me. On the positive side though, the track is finally opening up. At first I did not have much to do, but now I am sometimes getting good scenes to do as well," says Gauri.

Gauri who has been around TV for many years is also not very satisfied with the current small screen scenario. "When I had first started with Kahiin Kizzi Roz, if you were selected for one role, it was yours. But today things can change even at the last minute. Like recently I had been selected by one big production house for a project. However, after one month of wait, I was dropped saying that the concept was changed. They did not bother about the fact that I had left three other shows in the process."

Further explaining the problem seen in the industry, Gauri states, "One other problem is that sometimes the new lot of actors don't even know how to act. Luckily the cast in my current (BBC co- production) serial is quite professional. Having said this, in one previous show, we had to not only teach the newer lot the ABC of the craft, but also had to make them realize the importance of getting work."

Last but not the least, what really upsets Gauri is the fact that women in her age (30 odd) bracket really don't have much to do on TV. "At one end of the spectrum, we have 17/18 year old leads and the oldies in 50+ age group occupy the other side. Where do we go? It really gets tough to play mother to someone who is your age or even older. I just hope channels and production houses make shows which give us talented guys a chance to showcase our skills. We senior artists deserve better," she states with authority.

When asked about what is happening with hubby Yash Tonk, she says, "He is doing a daily for Doordarshan calledPavitra Bandhan. Unfortunately it also airs at my 8.30 time slot." So does it mean there is competition at home? "Not really as his Balaji show rates around 12 TRP, while we manage to get only around 1.4. Having said that, we are still the number two show on the channel."