Harsh Chhaya: I have nothing against working in a TV show

By Natalia Ningthoujam

New Delhi, July 10  Actor Harsh Chhaya has been away from the small screen for a while now, but he says he is not against working in a TV show.

Harsh has been part of many hit TV shows like “Ladies Special”, “Balika Vadhu”, “Astitva…Ek Prem Kahani”, “Swabhimaan” and “Hasratein”. He was last seen in the second season of “24” in 2016.

“I have nothing against working in a TV show, as long as there’s a part that’s interesting. Since the last decade, people have been coming with ‘ladki ya ladke ka baap’ (father) roles. The baap is fine but he is mostly standing behind and doing nothing. Gyan baantra hai (giving advice) and saying ‘beta sab theek ho jayga’ (everything will be fine). Who wants to do that?,” Harsh told IANS.

He seems to be quite comfortable in the digital space though. He made his debut in the digital world with “Out of Love” last year.

Then he featured in the web series “Rangbaaz Phirse”, and now his crime thriller “Undekhi” is available on SonyLIV.

“It is giving characters that we want to do unlike TV. They (creators of web series) have different stories and different things to say. It’s not always about a young boy and girl. It’s an opportunity to do the work that we want to do,” he said.

In “Undekhi”, he is seen as a “rich and an obnoxious man”.

“He is a wild, out of control kind of a guy and he couldn’t care less for anything or anybody,” he shared.

Harsh also makes content for the web.

“I have started writing short stories. I made a video blog on YouTube. That’s what I keep doing. It’s called Churan – the taste of life. It’s short stories on big moments of everyday life,” said the actor, who had made his directorial debut with the 2018 film “Khajoor Pe Atke”.

Did the lockdown period give him an opportunity to work on his next directorial?

“I had started writing but I haven’t been able to crack it and finish it. The idea would be to write and direct something else again which I am working towards. I’d like to write new characters where it’s not just about a 19-year-old or 20-year-old dancing around,” he said.

There might be shortage of interesting characters for actors of his age, but he is happy with his professional life.

“I am fine the way things are at this point of time. There’s a hope that things will get better. There’s no end to wanting things to improve,” he said.

“I belong to a family which had nothing to do with this profession. The fact that I wanted to act and live on acting, is good enough for me. One always hopes to be bigger and better,” added the actor.

He has always been drawn towards acting.

“I can’t pinpoint why. Right from the age of 8 or 9, I have been doing this one way or the other. I enjoy it. Maybe I started because I could do something else under the pretext of acting. You know being someone else and then you call it acting, unleash all your madness that you suppress because in the real world, you need to be nice and proper. I guess acting is one of the ways of letting it out,” he shared.

In the last few months, actors have been opening up about depression. Some even committed suicide. Asked if acting is a stressful job, he said: “That kind of stress can be anywhere, any job. When banks closed down, people lost jobs, a lot of things happened. But the good part is as long as you do what you want to do, you don’t feel the stress. Stress can come from any place, could be personal too.”