Double roles now a trend on television

Double-roles as a trend has always been around in Bollywood and now it’s soon catching up on the small screen too. Present televison shows like Uttaran, Adaalat, Zee TV’s Chhoti Bahu and Chandragupta Maurya all have the element of double roles incorporated at some point or the other. According to Virendra Shahaney, fiction head, programming, Sony, double roles are a source of drama and entertainment since Shakespeare’s times and will remain so forever. “It brings entertainment for audience across the world,” he says.

Actress Tina Dutta who is currently playing a double role in Uttaran says, “I feel blessed that I not only get to play two different characters, but also get to experiment with my look. I am spending as much time as possible working on how I will make Ichcha and Meethi two distinct characters, yet with similar characteristics. It is a challenging job.”

It certainly needs thorough planning to have an actor play double roles on a show, says producer Siddharth Kumar Tewary. “Having an actor play a double role in a TV show is definitely not a common thing. It’s subjective and its working or not working for a particular soap would depend on the content and storytelling and also on how the actor who is being given the opportunity carries the two characters. Basically film stars like Dilip Kumar (Ram Aur Shyam), Amitabh Bacchan (triple role in Mahaan), Sridevi, (Chaalbaaz) are all remembered for their performances even today. Double roles in TV shows may surely get eye balls initially as audiences would like to see how a popular actor is getting into two different characters simultaneously. Finally in the long run it’s the content which works,” he adds.