Talented actress Sayantani Ghosh who was last seen doing a cameo in Sony court room drama Adaalat has finally grabbed a biggie. She is now playing the lead role in new channel Life Ok’s show Meri Maa. Says Sayantani: “It is a very emotional and very performance-oriented role and those in the channel who have seen the early episodes are also impressed by my work.” Her character is that of a woman Pratibha who loses her daughter Jhilmil in a fair when the girl is just three or four years old. Pratibha continues to hunt high and low for her little one, little knowing that she is living with a pickpocket. “Four years pass by and though her family members – including mother in law (played by Neena Kulkarni) – are not optimistic, I am confident I will find her,” she says. Sayantani emphasizes that she took up this show because it is not the typical saas bahu one, and her character is very different from the ones which brought her in the limelight in Naaginn and Ghar Ek Sapna.- “There are very few concepts which deal with the beautiful mother-daughter relationship. This show’s Bengali version titled Maa is also running successfully on Star Jalsha (at the No 1 slot for the past two and a half years), ” she discloses. Sayantan,i who also featured in Kumkum-Ek Pyara Sa Bandhan, is quite candid that she does not have any problems playing a mother. “The times are changing,” she reveals, “and today’s audience is looking for different programming, for example, mature love stories. The days of the Chiclet love story are passé. More importantly I am playing mother to a young girl and not a 20 year old. I will not do that as I can’t do justice to it. ” Does she have any regrets about what went wrong with her previous full-fledged show, the thriller, Rakt Sambandh ? It tracked the lives of five sisters, one of whom is visually challenged, who lose their father on the handicapped girl’s wedding night. Rakt Sambandh initially drew audiences but later fizzled out. Sayantani does not mince her words while giving her point of view. Says she: “We are just actors and there are many things which are beyond our control. I guess the new channel creative team made changes to the story which did not work and they also shifted the time slot due to Zor Ka Jhakta .” You really shoot straight from the hip don’t you Sayantani?