Ashish Kaul Talks About ‘Ziddi Dil Maane Na’

The “Brahmarakshas 2” actor recently completed working on another show “Kyun Utthe Dil Chhod Aaye”.  “I was shooting in Rajkot then I was shooting at a set on Mira road. In ‘Kyun Utthe Dil Chhod Aaye’, I was playing Zaan’s father,” he shared.

“The show which is still on, is ‘Lakshmi Ghar Aayi’. That’s a Shakuntalam show and I am playing the girl Simran Pareenja’s father. I’ll be continuing with that. Once the girl gets married, the screen time reduces. She goes to the boy’s house, but on and off I will be coming in that also,” he added.

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Pandemic has changed the way people look at career and life. Sharing his opinion on it, he said, “The first wave was pretty bad because it lasted for over four months. The whole structure of payments got disturbed. The way of shooting got affected. Second wave of pandemic was really bad because a lot of people lost their lives, so there’s a kind of a gloomy atmosphere on set. Everybody doesn’t wear a mask, so there is panic. You can’t keep shouting at people. The fact is that we have to keep on working otherwise we will not survive.”

According to him, work situation is okay but things have changed.  “The way we work has changed. There are no visits to office. A lot of auditions done from home. We are not meeting people whom we are working with. We are just talking to them on phone or we are meeting them on sets. The timings of shooting have changed. Everyday we have to wake up by 5 or 5.30 am. That gets very tiring because the day starts early. Payments are slightly delayed everywhere. That is really affecting people who have to pay rents. Things are hard. There has to be a positive attitude and people have to keep on working and not get disturbed by the negativity,” said Ashish.

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Over the years, he has noticed certain changes in the industry.  “First change is the work timing. Earlier, it never used to be 12 hours. It used to be 8 hours. There’s a lot of cost cutting on sets regarding food and make-up rooms. I don’t know where they are putting the money, but definitely they are not putting it on the serial as they should be. The payment period has really increased. It used to be a month or 45 days, but now it is 90 days. Sometimes, it is even 100 to 120 days. It’s like you get your first payment after 5 or 6 months,” he said.

He especially feels bad for the newcomers.  “For newcomers, it’s really hard because they need to survive. The locations are really far off. If a person is going from Andheri to Naigaon, it takes about Rs 800 one way. There is no other way he or she can go because trains are not working. There’s no help from the production people of pick and drop. They are not even giving them a lift till the main road. They are just left to go on their own. For newcomers it’s really tough. They are fighters and they are fighting well, and I wish them all the best,” he said.

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“Where the performance part is concerned, the technique has improved. The lenses are better and studios are bigger. The working hours are more. So more work comes out, but sometimes you feel the old directors’ vaccum because now most of the directors don’t have time to explain the scene and teach acting and basics to the artiste because they have the set target of the number of scenes to be completed. So there is a lot of pressure on the direction team by the production people to complete the scenes. That compromises the whole performance level in most of the serials,” he added. TV content has also evolved.

“A lot of experimental series are coming. Earlier, the only popular one was ‘saas bahu’. Now different content is coming. They are more women and children-centric. People are going outdoors. I just finished ‘Barrister Babu’ and ‘Kyun Utthe Dil Chhod Aaye’. They were very wonderful shows and a lot of hardwork had gone into them.

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“‘Laxmi Ghar Aayi’ has a very different story where the girl and the father say no to dowry. They are rich people and can easily give dowry, but they are against it.” He feels that channels are working hard on giving new content because there is competition from the web world.

“Web is giving them a lot of competition. If the content is good and of a good standard, people are prefer to watch online. I would suggest the producers to put in more money and more quality into their serials. The taste of the web audience will have to be taken in mind and that’s how the content will make an impact,” he said.