Roopal Tyagi aka Gunjan of Sapne Suhaane ladakpan Ke tells D Kaushik that working for a daily soap helps an actor understand the technicalities of shoot and improves memory
Being on sets for almost 18 hours a day and shooting without any break, of course takes a toll on actor’s health. But doing a daily soap for over some years has its advantages, too, says actress Roopal Tyagi aka Gunjan from Sapne Suhaane ladakpan Ke on Zee TV. “You start understanding the camera angles well and your memory becomes sharp as you have to cram up the dialogues and improvise a lot in front of the camera. You know you don’t have an advantage of time to prepare for your scenes, so you learn to work under strict deadlines,” said the actress, who has received immense love from her fans as Gunjan. The show, which is counted as one of the most popular show on Zee, has completed a glorious run of 500 episodes. Roopal says the reason why it won the hearts of the audience is because it has retained freshness in its concept. “Even when the show began, it wasn’t one of those saas bahu sagas. I agree that making a show successful sans this drama is difficult, but that was never a focus of our show. The show depicted life in a small town, how a conventional family is adopting modern ways and is accepting a modern girl who has become a part of the family after she lost her mother.
Even now, I play a daughter-in-law of the family, but I am not one of those who will wear sindoor and mangalsutra everyday and will give up her education just because she is married. I stand by my own beliefs and even argue with my mother-in-law when I know that I am not wrong. So the show comes across as a perfect mix of traditional and modern and reflects the present small town scenario. So many people have told me that they totally relate to the story,” shared Roopal, who was being offered many other scripts when this show came up, but she chose it just because of the character she was offered to play. “Gunjan is so much like me. Initially it was a challenge for me to be innocent as well as someone who is not giving up to the situations. On TV, it usually happens that if you are not following the traditions, you are a rebel or a spoilt brat. The different aspect of this character was that she gives a reason to why she wants to go against something. Without looking rude on screen I had a challenge to convince the viewers that whatever I am deciding is right,” said Roopal.
The actress agrees that it is a Herculean task to keep up with tough schedule of shooting a daily soap but she says that “the idea of not being Gunjan even for a single day kills me, so I guess I would want to continue doing the show till its last episode.”
Whether she will continue doing daily soaps or will graduate to do films is still unsure, but Roopal says she is craving to take a break. “long working hours have taken a toll on my health and after this I would give myself a break of two to three months to get back to work,” she ended.