‘TV is the best medium for entertainment’

Sandhya Mridul

She appeared in many popular shows that included Swabhimaan, Banegi Apni Baat among others with Koshish…Ek Asha making Sandhya Mridul a household name. The actor, who has been away from television for quite sometime now, will be seen in the upcoming Star Plus series, Private Investigator that goes on air on December 8.
The show, a finite series, revolves around the life of a young college-going kid, Raffe Roy Chaudhary, a criminal psychology student and new-age detective. Interestingly, Sandhya plays Anita Roy Chaudhary, Raffe’s mother who has an important part to play in her son’s life.
But first thing first. It’s Mridul’s comeback of sorts and the first (which is also in all rights “fair” according to her) question is why has she been away from the medium that made her popular? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not because Mridul doesn’t like the medium. “Television, in fact, is one of the best mediums of all other entertainment mediums. The fact is that I had reached a point where I had done it all. I was the first bahu of TV on Koshish…Ek Asha and it became a trend after that. Just because it has been successful, I won’t do it again. Since TV did not offer me interesting projects, I stayed away,” says Mridul, who did the second season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa as well. But after the show, it was all about being a dancing diva. She didn’t like that too. “I didn’t want to make a career in dance reality shows,” she remarks.
Now, playing a mom to a college-going boy, is something new and exciting. “It is nowhere cliched. My characters have never been one shade and even now it is not. Anita Roy Chaudhary is what I would have loved to play in my career right now. She is a distinct personality. As an actor, I have never restricted myself and I am not doing that even now,” she says.
For Mridul, her life has been an experiment. She recalls how few of her friends stopped her to take up Page 3 for which she was appreciated later. This time around, the actor has taken up the show also because of the team associated with it. The setup and the story is interesting and, on her own admission, Aamir Bashir is one of her favourite co-actors.
Moreover, she thinks television is changing for good. “People are experimenting with different content. Short series and seasons are being made,” remarks Mridul, who is happy to see the medium evolve even if the mass audience is still to embrace it completely.
After all, ratings are not everything!