Amrita Rao: Long working hours on TV gave me cold feet

Bollywood actress Amrita Rao, who is making her television debut with “Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai”, says she was initially sceptical to enter the small screen world primarily due to its hectic work schedule.

“The treatment (of films and television) is no different. Television has certainly evolved and has a better reach too. I have seen my sister’s (Preetika) hectic schedule when she made her debut. Her long working hours gave me cold feet,” Amrita told PTI.

“I decided to do the show ‘Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai’ since it’s a finite series and we had to shoot for a limited period,” she said.

Amrita was getting lot of offers for doing television shows but none of them excited her except “Meri Awaaz..”

“For the past two years many production houses have approached me with different concepts but none appealed to me.

I was very clear that when I do a fiction show the content has to be very unique,” she said.

“I am happy that a script like “Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai” is character-driven and has a lot of freshness to it,” she added.

For the “Main Hoon Na” actress to play the role of Kalyani Gaikwad, an illustrious legendary singer in the history of Indian music, was challenging and exciting.

Set against the backdrop of music, the show narrates the story about two sisters and their bittersweet relationship that turns into rivalry.

Looking at the promos and the story line of the show “Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai” it seems the show is supposedly based on Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle rivalry.

And Amrita seems to play the legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar’s young part in the show.

“I play Kalyani Gaikwad who is a Marathi girl from a small village Nagothane close to Pune. Kalyani goes on to becoming a world famous singer and India’s pride,” she said.

“In my very first meeting with the channel there was no mention of real life personality on whom this role was inspired or based on,” she added.

But to portray the character of a singer the “Vivah” actress has taken inspiration from all singers including male singers.

The story that spans across three generations will see the character of Kalyani being first portrayed by child actor Jannat Zubair followed by Amrita Rao and Deepti Naval.

The role of Ketki will see child actor Mehnaz charm the audience with her innocence followed by Aditi Vasudev and Zarina Wahab.

“Deeptiji plays my senior version in the show. So she and I are both playing different age group of Kalyani Gaikwad.

I have been a huge admirer of Deeptiji and I loved Zarinaji in the Rajshri production film “Chitchor”,” Amrita adds.

Actress Pallavi Joshi will be seen as Devika, the mother of Kalyani and Ketki.

“Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hai” premieres from March 7 on & TV.

Inputs by PTI

Also Read: AMRITA RAO TO MAKE TV DEBUT WITH DEEPTI NAVAL