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‘Stars can be bought’
From a theatre actor to movies and now a producer of TV shows, Paresh Rawal has gone from strength to strength.
From a theatre actor to movies and now a producer of TV shows, Paresh Rawal has gone from strength to strength.
The actor-producer returns with Laagi Tujhse Lagan on TV channel Colors. The show, Rawal says, is based on a true story that he was witness to as a child. “Manjula, a servant at a relative’s house, was ill-treated because she was ugly and dark-skinned. The atrocities she bore were sitting in my memory for many years. The channel called us to produce a show on a similar concept, set in the lower middle class of the city. Without a second thought, I agreed,” says Rawal.
Rawal says the only similarity between Saat Phere, Sapnaa Babul Ka Bidaai, Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin and his show Laagi Tujhse Lagan is that they’re all based on the social partiality to the fair skin. “Anyone in any part of the country will connect with Laagi... because it has very strong emotions,” he says.
His last TV show, Teen Bahuraniyaan, went off air abruptly from Zee TV. Also, the story, about the three brides of the family, went into territories like paranormal activities. Rawal says that it wasn’t in his hands to lead the show in these directions. But he insists that his new show won’t go that way.
It’s a year after Maharathi, your debut film as a producer. What’s happening to your next?
We are working on that. Hemal Thakkar, my partner, is supporting me. I’m sure we’ll freeze a lot of details by March and the film will go on the floors. I want to make sensible commercial films.
Your wife, Swaroop, never appears in any of your shows?
She was busy raising our children all these years. So, she took a sabbatical. Now, she teaches in universities as she has become a literary doctor. She’s done her PhD. If a really challenging role comes her way, she won’t mind it.
Have you ever taken on roles that only looked challenging?
I have done films only for the sake of money and sometimes, I have been duped into believing that the film is a sensible project. I cringe at the thought of those films, but there is hardly anything that I can do about it today.
