By Natalia Ningthoujam
Mumbai, May 30 (IANS) It wasn't long ago when "Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai" actor Randeep Rai hopped on to the driver's seat of an auto-rickshaw for a short trip around the show's shooting location in Film City here. What's more? Its lead actress Ashi Singh turns masseuse for her co-stars and others like to workout when they are not facing the camera.
Shooting for about 12 hours a day is not an easy task. So what do they do when they are not working?
"I give massage to them," Ashi said pointing at her co-stars and friends Kristina Patel and Ayesha Kaduskar.
Hailing Ashi, Ayesha told IANS: "My head was hurting. So, she gave a very good head massage."
That's not all. Kristina added that Ashi gives "back massage very well" too.
The boys have fun as well.
Actor Raghav Dhir shared: "We carry our gym with us."
Demonstrating it, actor Sanjay Choudhary said: "We have this skipping rope. So, in a way we do gymming in our room only. We are here for at least 12 hours and then commuting takes one hour or more. There is hardly any time for gymming. So, we do skipping here."
The workout session is not just about sweating it out. For these boys, it's also an opportunity to pull each other's leg.
"We play high on energy songs on YouTube so that after watching them, we feel more energised to perform in front of the camera," said Sanjay.
"They (Raghav and Randeep) push me to workout more. One day, I noticed that they were making my video. After that, I put on more clothes and started gymming," he added.
Their strong bond can also be witnessed on the Sony Entertainment Television show, set in the 1990s, that premiered last year.
"I think the advantage of working for so many months together is that the relationship that you form off-screen gets easily reflected on-screen. Now that all of us are in one class, we hang around together. That relationship is justified better on-screen because we spend so much time together," said Ayesha.
Raghav feels that he has grown as an actor.
"We kind of knew that the genre would be comedy. We (Munna, Pandit and Sameer) started off as friends and then we got emotional and from being friends we became brothers. As an actor, we started getting more committed," he said.
Sanjay shared that when the show began, they were not too certain about the future of their characters.
"It was just about having fun in the class... throwing papers at each other. We were not sure about our characters' growth. Then we started getting lines. Our bonding became good, public started appreciating us and then our scenes also got increased," he said.
Their fans on social media can't stop discussing the ongoing college track.
"Our clothes and style have changed," said Kristina.
There are changes in their characters too. "We were not bold before as we were in school and now we are in college. Now, I give flying kisses to Sameer (Randeep) in front of everyone," said Ashi.
Ayesha added: "In school, girls had to stay away from boys and maintain some distance. Now, we can sit together with the boys and interact with them openly."
What should the fans look forward to?
"It will get a lot more fun and colourful," promised Ayesha.
Ashi and Kristina's mothers had also featured in an episode of the show. Should the audience expect them to return to the show?
"No," pat came Kristina's reply.
Ayesha pointed out that her mother is "very shy in front of the camera" so, there is no chance.
Ashi was just happy about the fact that apart from her mother, her three-year-old niece could also feature in "Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai".
"She was in the wedding sequence. She enjoyed shooting a lot," recalled Ashi.
(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at Natalia.n@ians.in)
