Quality will come with seasonal, reality TV shows: Ronit Roy
In a conversation with Hindustantimes.com, the actor talks about his work, life and how he perceives TV and cinema.
When he came to limelight in early 2000s with Balaji's daily TV soaps, he was appreciated for his looks and performance. Years have passed and Ronit Roy continues to enthral TV audience as KD Pathak, even as he charms his ways through film critics with movies like Udaan and Boss.
In a conversation with Hindustantimes.com, the actor talks about his work, life and how he perceives TV and cinema.
Ronit is not very happy with the kind of shows being on TV these days. He says that quality can only come with seasonal shows. When you sit for three months and write the lines and script, you have the budget and all, something better shapes up. But in a daily show, actors and writers are fatigued with the pressure of churning out 23 minutes of showtime daily."
Ronit feels that reality shows are the way towards fresh and better quality. He says, "Every season, these shows come up with new people and new strategies. Now, 24 is there. Let us see what happens to that show. If 24 sets the trend, I guess we will see more seasonal shows."
"Currently, it is quantity over quality in TV due to various restrains," he adds.
The more time and research that is dedicated, the better the outcome, Ronit Roy believes. "For TV, you are shooting everyday, which becomes monotonous after some time but for films, we get time to think about the character and work on it," the actor says.
Ronit is currently seen in Adalat on TV where he plays the role of a lawyer-cum-investigator. He says, "We are not showing a show for creating awareness or stuff, this is purely for entertainment. We take creative liberties but I make sure that as and when I can there is a small social message that I can send."
He is not too keen on sending out messages with his show. "I seriously believe that kids have parents and they are best brought up by them. I mean I would hate it if some actor would start preaching my kids," the actor says.
It is not, however, that he does not sense the responsibility riding on his back, "Social morality and responsibility is there in the back of my mind but all said and done, this is not a show where moralistic preaching happens. It is not enlightenment or education."
He has been a hot figure for TV audience ever since he made his mark with Mr Bajaj (Kasauti Zindagi Kii) . We want to know about the crazy stuff fans do for him but the actor is too humble to share such incidents. Instead, he says that most actors see fans doing crazy stuf and that is usual. "There is this group of girls who have set up a website for me and they send me a card and cake every year on my birthday," he adds.
Apart from TV, Ronit has also made space for himself on the silver screen. Critics sang laurels for his act in Akshay Kumar-starrer Boss that released recently. The actor, however, credits the writers for his character. There wasn't much preparation for the role - Ayushman Thakur - says Ronit. "This is commercial cinema and most of the research was done by the writers. I essentially worked on my outer self, body because you are shooting with Akshay who is the king of action."
The actor further says, "There is a line - vishwas to mai apne baap k baap hone pe b nai karta - that is the defining point for my role. I had an explanation in my mind about the characters' attitude. I thought he could have burnt his parents alive because they didn't give him a toy or something."
If he has worked in a serious film like Deepa Mehta's Midnights' Children, He has also given us a light-hearted movie like Karan Malhotra's Student of The Year; while on one hand, Ronit essays a pivotal role in Vikramaditya Motwane's Udaan, he also works in the masala entertainer Anthony D'Souza's Boss.
When asked what makes him sign films, Ronit says, "I choose people, not films. The script should be convincing. I don't have too much script sense."
When asked about his family's response to his work, Ronit says, "My wife gets very excited about my work. My brother is a critic for me. My kids have watched Adalat but they haven't watched boss but they understand their father is an actor and they are born to me so they are used to it all."
With a versatile career graph like his, I wondered what he would like best. Ronit is not in the mood to play favourites. He says, "I can't choose, jaha udaan hai waha Boss bhi hai, Midnights' Children hai to Students Of The Year bhi hai. Har kaam utne hi passion se kiya hai. In Boss, I had great fun shooting the climax. I also enjoyed working for Anurag Kashyap's short film Ugly."
