
Mumbai: Actor Mona Singh says there is nothing worth doing on television
nowadays and hence, it does not hurt her to reject the shows that come
her way.
Singh, who is still remembered for her work in the
sitcom "Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi" (2003), has reduced her small screen
outing over the last few years, and she blames it on
the regressive content on TV.
"It is not progressive anymore for
sure. There are the kind of shows I don't want to be a part of, and I
hope TV sees the same days that it saw when we started. I really don't
know
what went wrong with TV. The good shows are not being made or they just
shut too early," the actor told PTI.
Singh says she ca not pinpoint the exact reason why the quality of shows started dwindling over the years.
"I
don't know what people really want to see. There are just mythological
shows, which I don't want to see. I saw them when I was growing up. I
saw 'Ramayan' and 'Mahabharat', but that is not what I want to see now. I
don't know what's wrong with TV. Maybe the channels are not willing to
take the risks, to try out something new," she adds.
In this scenario, when an actor does not have many options in TV, Singh says she has no qualms in turning down a show.
"The
first thing that my father taught me was to say no. It is the most
difficult thing to do because we can't please everybody. I am a very
choosy actor and I prefer quality over quantity, that's why I have done
very few shows but all those shows are remembered till now.
"I
don't feel bad in saying no. I take pride in saying no because I don't
want to do them. I don't want to pretend and make someone else happy by
saying yes. I think of myself
as an actor and what they have to offer to me. If the offer is good
enough, I take it up," she says.
Singh, who has done only six
shows in 15 years of her television career, is excited about her foray
into the digital space, with web series, "Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain", which
has been produced by Ekta Kapoor.
"It is always good to
experiment, and people in India are embracing the digital concept and
content because there is nothing really to watch on TV these days.
Digital is out there, it's more bold, brave and taking risk in creating
content that the audience wants to watch or is deprived of. So, for
actors, who are hungry for good roles, digital is the way for them," she
says.
Co-starring Ronit Roy and Gurdeep Kohli, the AltBalaji
series, which started steaming from March 16, will show how lives of the
three lead characters are affected when someone
finds love outside marriage.
Roy and Kohli play a married couple in the show. Singh portrays a single woman, who falls in love with Roy.
Singh
says she was surprised when Ekta Kapoor offered her the part, because
on TV she was used to getting typecast as "the nice, simple woman".
What
made the choice easier was the treatment of her character, she says,
adding that unlike TV shows, "Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain" does not make the
"other woman" a vamp.
"The story, the concept, the fact that it
is so real and that Ekta wanted to experiment with me and wanted me to
play the other woman. Nobody would have thought of that
because on TV, I have always been the positive protagonist. So, when I
asked her why doesn't she want to me to play the wife, she said,
'Because you have always done that. Let's try something else'.
"Her (Kapoor's) take is very clear. She doesn't want the other woman to be negative, contrary to what is on TV," Singh says.
The
actor believes strongly in the digital medium, and feels a sequel to
"Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin" will work successfully as a web series. The show
had run for three years on Sony.
"If we talk about TV, I really
can't say but if you talk about sequel on a digital platform, I think it
will work. But the story has to be as big and innovative as Jassi was.
"They
(people) often talk about it and I feel so happy that it has been so
many years the show's been over and they still miss it. That's what I
think we have achieved with that
show," she says.
PTI