Mumbai: Actor Ronit Roy with his wife Neelam Singh during the 61st Britannia Filmfare Awards in Mumbai on January 15, 2016. (Photo: IANS)
By Kishori Sud
Mumbai, June 4 (IANS) If it wasn't for the television industry, Ronit Roy says he was a dead actor. Considered the Amitabh Bachchan of the Indian small screen, he feels "hurt" with the "regressive" content that is finding its way into over 175 million households (Ficci-KPMG report) across the country.
"I was a dead actor, and TV gave me life again. The TV industry is like my mother, which I don't want to insult. But what is happening on television today, is very regressive," Ronit told IANS in an interview here while promoting the new season of the Sony Entertainment Television show "Adaalat".
The actor had done bit roles in Hindi films like "Sainik" and "Army" and had a body of work in TV shows like "Baat Ban Jaye", "Suraag", and "Kammal", before he landed a role in Ekta Kapoor's much-successful show "Kasautii Zindagi Kay". Success happened.
As Rishabh Bajaj, Ronit became a popular face, and his popularity later skyrocketed when he stepped in to essay Mihir Virani in Indian small screen's epochal show "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi".
"When I started on TV, it was so exciting, and suddenly it has been corrupt... It has crumpled into one little ball of paper. It hurts me."
His last fiction show was "Itna Karo Na Mujhe Pyaar", which went off the air last year.
Asked if he has washed his hands off the concept of daily soap operas, the 50-year-old actor said: "No".
In fact, Ronit said he is in talks with a channel to "raise the bar of TV (content) or at least (help it) get out of the regressive" phase.
"There are some like-minded people and we have started talking. I have bought some rights to a few pieces of work which we may or may not put on TV. But the people I am talking to, are very keen. They are those heads of channels who are educated enough and also agree that TV has become regressive," he said.
Ronit, who has of late featured in films like "Udaan", "2 States", "Ugly" and "Guddu Rangeela", doesn't see any reason why the small screen world is going through this phase -- where concepts around 'daayans' and 'naagins' are ruling the roost.
"Maybe the audience is not accepting something new, and it's not moving forward considering where global TV is right now," he said and added that content will always be the king -- irrespective of how long a show lasts.
Whenever he does come back with a fiction daily soap, he says it may just mark his debut as a TV producer or director.
"Till that happens, I am going to stay away from daily soaps. In my experience, when someone else is making it, what I hear on the outset is different from where I find myself after a month's telecast of a show," quipped the actor, who is busy balancing the TV and film world.
(The writer's trip was at the invitation of Sony Entertainment Television. Kishori Sud can be contacted at kishori.s@ians.in)
