Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Time for Saat Phere

Rajashri Thakur, who makes her small screen debut as Saloni in "Saat Phere", speaks to SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

DUSKY DAMSEL Rajashri Thakur says her skin tone was the clincher for the role of Saloni in "Saat Phere" on Zee TV.

Being spotted as relatively active on stage during her school and college days, many well-wishers had advised Rajashri Thakur to look at a career on television. But having seen "the same old roles" cut out for female actors in tele-serials, Rajashri says she didn't want to be seen anywhere near it and instead got on to studying law.

"Meanwhile, I did an Indo-French film called Hawa Aane De," she shares. She played the role of Salma, a college-goer in the film. "It was about how many promising youngsters in India can't achieve their dream because of financial difficulties and the frustrations that they undergo," she explains.

When the film was screened in the Asian Film Festival, the producers of Saat Phere, the popular daily serial that she is seen in now on Zee TV, approached Rajashri for the lead role of Saloni.

"I told them no straightaway. But as the calls kept coming and the writer of Hawa Aane De, Virendra Shekhar, who knew the producers well, asked me to meet them once, I went and read the script, and everything changed. I loved the script, it is so different from what is rolled out on TV these days. I am happy that the serial is doing well," says the Mumbaiite.

Saat Phere is the story of Saloni, a girl from a middle-class family in Rajasthan who suffers humiliation because of her dark complexion. She marries Nahar for love, a nice, supportive man from a rich family, but only to suffer at the hands of wily relatives for dowry demands and various forms of rich-poor discrimination so common in our society. "It is a very real story that many girls with a skin colour like mine and from a lower middle class background face. With marriage it worsens. But the best part about Saloni is she never prefers to lose in life," states Rajashri, adding that her skin tone was the clinching factor for the role.

A newsreader too

A graduate of Bombay University, Rajashri also had a stint as a newsreader with All India Radio in Mumbai.

"I tried a lot of things. My stage background gave me a lot of confidence to do different things. I was such a regular in the Indian National Theatre competition. It is very popular among university students in Mumbai," she recounts. Rajashri also did a few modelling assignments for Tanishq, Bajaj Almond Hair Oil and Whirlpool, etc.

And now that she is being noticed in Saat Phere, will she hang around in Tinsel Town? "Well, it depends, if I get good roles," replies Rajashri.

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail