Uneasy lies the head...

Pratyusha Banerjee recently made way for another actress to take on the mantle of Anandi in Balika Vadhu. Pratyusha reportedly needed a break after the hectic shooting schedules. Kritika Kamra quit Kuch Toh Log Kahenge — producer Rajan Shahi says, “It was not possible to replace Kritika” — and so the curtains came down on the show.

Another leading lady, Hina Khan of Rajan’s Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlaata Hai too has been quoted as being “saturated” with her part in the show that completed four years in January.

Ankita Lokhande too, ever since her boyfriend and co-star, Sushant Singh Rajput quit Pavitra Rishta for films, has been crying wolf (read threatening to follow suit). She is reportedly on a two-month break from the show.

Bearing the cross of a primetime heroine
The leading ladies of TV have never had it easy. While it’s a matter of pride for them when they first bag a lead role with a prestigious production house and a leading channel, about a year or more later, when the show is settled and is probably one of the top-rated ones the cracks begin to show. It could be monotony setting in after doing the same character month after month or a need to breakaway and do something else or health issues.

Says Hina Khan, “I never said that I was saturated playing Akshara. I don’t know where that interview came from. This is my fifth year with Yeh Rishta... and unlike Balika Vadhu, which has seen three replacements so far, I have been part of my show from day one.
Yes, it gets monotonous but at the end of the day when I look back to where I started and see people struggling to find roles, I am blessed!”

No holidays makes the daily soap Daisy dull!
Recently at the press launch of Ek Thhi Naayka, Kritika on being asked about her decision to quit Kuch Toh… had said, “I have played the character for so long that monotony has set in. Don’t you get bored doing the same kind of stories!”

Sanjeeda Sheikh was happy to share screen space with Additi Gupta in the just-begun Badalte Rishton Ki Daastan. Why? “We are good friends and we have already decided to bail each other out if want a few days off. Between the two of us, we can divide the shooting time and make our lives easier.”

Working towards a humane approach
So while most girls would give an arm and leg to be a leading channel’s prime time offering, producer Rajan says with time, they understand how difficult it is to be an actor on TV today. “The working of a daily soap is an extremely complex situation. You can’t use the same yardstick for every show and every actress.

It depends on each individual case. For instance, I let off Kritika leniently because she had worked very hard for the show and I could not see anyone else in her role. Similarly, Hina gets a break of seven days every month because I understand that being the heroine of the serial, she needs time to rejuvenate herself. I guess, one has to take a very humane approach when handling your actors, especially your leading lady.”

But Rajan adds, times have changed for the better. Actors are no longer working in bottleneck, gruelling shifts. Aishwarya Sakhuja, better known as Toasty of the now-defunct Saas Bina Sasural agrees with him. “It’s not like earlier times when actors worked for 36 and 48 hours a stretch. It was a conscious decision on my part too, to enter the industry when the union rules stated that the artistes would work only for 12 hours and not more. So naturally to crunch up 10 scenes into those 12 hours is going to be extremely difficult but then no one has put a gun to our head. It’s our conscious choice.

Also, with Indian television, it’s the characters that become stars. So for instance, if people are liking Toasty then Toasty will be put in each and every scene whether she is required or not! The same goes for a Hina Khan or a Kritika Kamra. The medium is like that. Obviously, there will be pressure. But nowhere except the visual medium, you get so much appreciation and that gets us going.”

Producers are angels too
“Producers are extremely fair if you tell them in advance that you are not going to be available for the next four or five days. They let you off because contracts are very fair now.

You are bound to work only for 25 days and not 30 days a month so you get at least a day off,” says Aishwarya. Hina echoes Aishwarya’s sentiment. She says, “My producers treat me like a doll and every demand of mine is met and every request is paid heed to.
And I too understand their problem when they are unable to do so.”

However, a production member of a leading show says on the condition of anonymity that these leading ladies are not always paragons of virtue. Some of them do take advantage of their popularity and make their own rules. They report late and throw tantrums and use pressure tactics at the slightest pretext. “They know exactly how to make the producer-director run around them. But since TV is all about deadlines, some of these producers have no choice but to grin and bear.”

Until maybe the time when it becomes too much for either to handle it anymore and they have to part ways.