Virrudh Picture Gallery-No Comments - Page 2

R eports about their mean fights be damned. Apara Mehta will be seen act- ing in Smriti Z Iraani's Vir- rudh (Sony). "I can only laugh off media reports about our fights. I'm so busy with my serials, Karam Apnaa Apnaa, Solhah Singaar, Virrudh and my plays. Where is the time to fight with anyone?" asks the Gujarati theatre actress. She says her role in Virrudh is well defined. Playing the char- acter Uttara, the widowed moth- er of Sushant, (Sushant Singh), she says, "Uttara has seen many hardships. She has brought up Sushant single-handedly She's . a very disciplined woman. This is also the first time, I appear sans make- up, heavy saris or jewellery. I'm so nervous that I keep checking myself on the TV monitor after every single scene." Ask her what she shares with Iraani and she says, "We're both good at multi-tasking. We're hardworking. We don't say 'This , is it or I've made it.' "One has to keep re-invent- ing and succeeding all the time. Well, we're dissimilar too. She is smarter than me." Mehta says for actors like her, TV doesn't always throw up great challenges; "The other role I loved enacting was that of Kuki Kaaki in Saat Phere." Of late, Mehta has been liv- ing out of suitcases. The Eng- lish screenplay of her latest Gujarati play Masti Maa Mar- riage ane Marriage Maa Masti is written by her daughter Khushali Jariwala. "In fact, I'm also doing a Gujarati daily and may sign up another serial. The roles are so substantial that I don't want to refuse them. The actor in me is always greed for good roles," says Mehta. She is proud to have been part of 10 daily shows in a span of 10 years, of which Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhie Bahu Thi have cre- ated benchmarks for being the longest running soaps on television. On a weight losing spree, Mehta says, "Just the other day , I was telling my Karam co- actors, Achint (Kaur) and Jaya (Bhattacharya) that I miss my hips. And they laughed and said, "You shouldn't miss them because they have been with you for too long. "My Kyunkii…co-actors - are friends for life. Whether it's Smriti, Ketaki (Dave), Komo- lika (Guha) or the younger girls, we talk to each other on the phone. "Irrespective of whether we meet each other or not, we're always there for each other," she signs off.