Jasmin Bhasin is not very perturbed by the current low ratings of her new STAR Pus show, Dil Toh Happy Hai Ji. “Our love story is such that it will grow on you. Also you need to factor in that the early evening 7.30 pm time slot is not a great rating guzzler. Mariam Khan Reporting Live, which preceded us, was doing 0.9 while we went up to 1.1 as well. Last but not the least, the current flux regarding new pay TV channels tariffs could not have helped matters.”
“What I best like about playing Happy is that it gives me a chance to play around with lots of different emotions.” Jasmin identifies with her character a lot. “Like Happy, my personal journey from Kota to Mumbai also has not been a walk in the park. But like Happy, Jasmin never gives up and keeps fighting back.”
Going on, she says, “Although being Punjabi myself, it helped me a lot with the language and culture of Happy, yet, playing her still comes as a challenge, for I had to unlearn from my previous rustic dumb character (Tani in Dil Se Dil Tak), who is poles apart from an urban smart Happy.”
When pointed differences in both her co-stars Ansh Bagri and Aru K Verma, and asked whether the public still prefers dapper leads and could that lead to boy-next-door characters being bumped off, she says, “No, in daily soaps, looks are secondary. It is only the character and how well you essay it that calls the shots. Even when I played Tani, no one knew my real name.”
Jasmin regards herself lucky to have always got diverse roles in her 3-year long lead career. After making a strong debut in Tashan-E Ishq, she found her calling in the extra-marital affair show, Dil Se Dil Tak. “I have also taken part in India’s most popular reality show, Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 9. I also partly attribute my success to my choosy nature of not picking just about anything only to be seen.”
Talking more about Khatron, she says, “Doing this Colors adventure show has completely changed my personality. I am much more confident now. When you go out to face your fear, you don’t think of winning but just surviving.”
Among Khatron co-contestants, she regards Bharati Singh, her better half and Ali Goni as her best friends on the show. “We not only stood by each other in Argentina, but continue to be in touch once back home as well.”
