Working with TV czarina Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms can be challenging. But it is also fun and rewarding. Ask scores of actors who have gone on to lucrative careers following their association with one of the Balaji Telefilms' shows.
Ankita Lokhande who plays Pavitra Rishta's Archana is also likely to get more than her just reward, thanks to her commitment to her character. Ankita decided to stay on even as other actors (read: her real life partner Sushant Singh Rajput) said ta-ta when the story of Zee TV's Pavitra Rishta leapt forward 20 years. The 25 year old agreed to age in the show, and become a 45 year old mother of four children - something which most actors would refrain from doing.
"Growing old can impact a young actor's career as it is difficult to get another youngster's role after that. Hence actors shy away from taking part in leaps," says a casting director.
But that has not dampened Ankita. "Growing old in a show does not matter to me," she says. "Television has changed and I don't think a young actor's career will suffer if he or she plays an older character."
What, however, gave her the confidence was Ekta's commitment to her that she would be given a lead role closer to her real age in another Balaji Telefilms show, once Pavitra Rishta ends. "Within five months, audiences will get to see me playing a younger character in contrast to the very much older Archana I am now playing in Pavitra," she says.
Agrees Ekta: "Characters grow old, actors do not. I have a responsibility on my head now; I have to cast her in a show as a young character."
Ankita fans can now bring out the bubbly and say "Cheers to that!"