When the starcast of Jijaji Chhat Pe Hai visited Chandni Chowk, it made many heads turn as they took a ride on a rickshaw and gorged onlip-smacking street food. SANGEETA YADAV chats up with them about their experience of interacting with the fans

In the hustle-bustle of Chandni Chowk, Murari lal, famous for his lehenga shop Murari lal Ki Dukan, is busy attending to customers while Pancham aka Jijaji stands wrapped in a lehenga telling them how good it looks. leaving no single opportunity to pull the leg of Pancham, Elaichi- Murari lal’s daughter and the love lady of Pancham — plays pranks and teases him. They take a rickshaw decked up in colourful frills and horns and go to gorge the spicy fare at the famous Natraj Ki Tikki shop in Chandni Chowk.

From shopkeepers and customers to passersby, everybody came out to see and greet the starcast of Jijaji Chhat Pe Hai who recently visited Chandni Chowk to give a glimpse of the show and interact with the fans.

“It feels good when people call you by your character name and come out to greet you. They remember your scenes and dialogues. You literally become a household name. For actors, the biggest achievement and satisfaction is to make a space for yourself in the heart of the audience through your performance. We get a lot of love and appreciation when we come out to shoot live in real location. Because of their love, we actors do shows and films otherwise we would have been doing something else," Anup Upadhyay, who plays Murari lal, says.

For Hiba Nawab, to get into the shoes of a typical Chandni Chowk girl is fun but she took time to get it right. "Sometimes I behave like a typical Chandni Chowk ki Gundi but in person, I am polite and not at all a prankster. Instead, I become the victim of all the pranks. The only time she speaks confidently is when she lies to someone. To portrait as realistic as possible, I spoke to my friends from Delhi to understand the typical lingo and body language. I feel  Chandni Chowk girls are different from the rest of the Delhiites,” Nawab says.

Gorging some tikki and chaat, Nawab reveals that her main purpose to come to Chandni Chowk is to eat and shop. “I am from Kanpur and used to come to Chandni Chowk with my family when I was a child to shop whenever there was a wedding.  You get amazing Indian clothes and jewellery at a very reasonable price, it is the best place for women to shop. I am a big foodie too and love the chaat,  tikki and much more,” Nawab says.

For Upadhyay, going back to Chandni Chowk was like reliving the memories of observing different characters and eating street food.  “When I was pursuing theatre in Delhi at Rangmanch, we used to go to Chandni Chowk quite often to eat and also observe different characters for the play. When I got to know that show is based out of Chandni Chowk, I was very excited as you get to see a lot of colours in one place and we try to bring all the essence of the place as close to reality. We have created Chandni Chowk in Mumbai where we shoot,” Upadhyay says.

When celebrities come out of their sets for the promotional activity, mob attack is common but the actors come well-prepared. When Upadhyay was shooting in Kanpur, he experienced something similar.

“We were shot in Kanpur at the popular shop — Thaggu Ke laddoo. There were many police officers for our security.  Though they managed to control the crowd, they couldn’t stop them from screaming and every time the director would say ‘silence and action’, the public would make so much of noise that we could not hear each other’s dialogues. Every time we said a line, the crowd would cheer. We finally decided not to speak out the  dialogues but lip sync. We could add the voice later. When I saw the footage while dubbing, I couldn’t hear a thing except for screams and shouts,” Upadhyay recalls adding that though he was a bit  nervous and apprehensive looking at the huge crowd, he was sure he was safe and would not be harmed by the public.

Recalling her experience of the mob, Heeba says: “Once we were shooting at Banaras’ main Railway Station for another show. More than 10,000 people gathered there. The crows became a bit unruly and unmanageable and we had to stop the  shooting. The crows just would not let us shoot and some misbehaved as well. I  don’t appreciate this kind of behaviour even if they are my fans. The situation became scary and we sat inside the car for two hours,” Nawab recounts.

It is this fear that leads to actors wanting to shoot on the sets. “I like to shoot on the sets as it is more comfortable and a secure place to work. At real locations, the crowd is difficult to manage. We can shoot for two-three days but not more. People from smaller towns don’t get to see celebs and that is why when a shoot takes place they are excited to see celebrity. But when the crowd becomes uncontrollable, it is a sign of danger,” Nawab tells you.