Kunal Jasingh aka Omkara of Isqhbaaaz, who will now be seen in Voot web series, Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka 2, is very happy that his former STAR Plus show, now rechristened as Ishqbaaz – Pyaar Ki Ek Dhinchak Kahani, is bowing out with grace.
Says Kunal, “It was a very beautiful show and will go down in history as an iconic show. I am very proud to have been a part of it.”
Ask him whether the channel could have continued with the existing cast (Surbhi Chandna, him, Shrenu Parekh and Mansi Srivastav, etc.) and given it an end rather than making wholesale changes (Manjiri Pupala and then later Niti Taylor were brought in as female leads opposite Nakuul Mehta), which earned fan ire, and he says, “Well, this is a catch 22 situation. Had we not done it, you would have then enquired whether a generation leap could have saved the day. Decisions are always taken in real time and it is not right to judge them in hindsight. And I stand by what I said back then of fully supporting whatever the channel and the production house does in the interest of the show.”
Talking about his new web series, Kunal says “I play fashion photographer Ruhan, who comes to Mumbai. Here, his brother’s best friend gets him to stay as PG in his fiancée Mishti’s (Tejasswi Prakash Wayangankar) house. That is where the story starts. Ruhan’s first love, essayed by Aneri Vajani, will complete the triangle.”
So this will also have an infidelity theme, as was in part I which aired on Colors? “Not so much, as this time we have a younger story with more innocent emotions.” Will it be very bold as most web series are? “No, we will be more real.”
Kunal, who recently got married, is quite excited about the web, “For the audiences now do not have to wait for say 9 pm to watch their favorite show. They can check it at their convenience on the go, courtesy ubiquitous smart phones.”
But web is not yet big? “Well, it would be unfair to compare both the mediums. Satellite TV has been around since nineties, while the digital crest has just started.”
So correspondingly, money on web would be lesser, compared to TV? “No, had that been the case, we would not have biggies like Ronit Roy and Mona Singh gracing the WWW landscape.”
Best of luck, Kunal!!