Actor Puneet Vashist is currently seen playing the role of the mythological character, Narad Muni, in the new show Laxmi Narayan. In an exclusive chat with The Free Press Journal, he opened on returning to television after trying his hand at Bollywood, his current show, controversies surrounding mythological films, and more.
Puneet was recently seen playing the role of Narad in the show Shiv Shakti, and he believes the audience will get to see more of him with Laxmi Narayan. "I am looking forward to doing different scenes from Vishnu Puran now. I have earlier done the scenes from Shiv Puran in Shiv Shakti. You will see more of Narad now in Laxmi Narayan than in my previous show," he says.
He adds that he has several similarities with Narad in real life. "Bhakti and brahmacharya are similar. I practice celibacy and I am a 'param bhakt'. And I play the guitar also. He was a veena player and I am a guitarist. He was very much interested in music and I am also kind of a musician," he shares.
Puneet has been a part of several mythological shows, including Ram Siya Ke Luv Kush, Shiv Shakti and now Laxmi Narayan. However, the actor has no fear of getting stereotyped in such roles. "People have seen me doing all kinds of roles over the years, so I don't think I'll get typecast, and if I do, then that's the makers' fault. I am an actor and I am doing whatever role I have been assigned to the best of my abilities. If I am asked to play a demon or a gangster or cop, I'll take that up and give it my 100 per cent there too. I have done a lot of negative roles earlier, so I think this is also an opportunity for me to show people that I can play positive characters as well," he explains.
Having been a part of mythological shows, Puneet also opened up on the controversies that crop up every time such a project comes up. "This majorly happens with films. There has been some very controversial storytelling and certain films have tried to demean our religious sentiments, they have tried to hurt our religious sentiments through some anti-Hindu kind of producers. But in TV, we are just underlining our values, our traditions, our beliefs, our faith and we are just presenting it to the public the way it is. We don't play around with our factual history, with the mythology, with what's been written about the gods and goddesses. We present it just the way it is and thus people love us," he states.
Puneet has also been a part of several hit Bollywood films, including Shah Rukh Khan's Josh, Aamir Khan's Fanaa, Happy New Year, and others, but he is now back to television for good, and one of the major reasons behind the move is nepotism. "Films are a big nepotistic Bollywood mafia zone and God bless them with that zone. I am very happy doing television, because whatever big films I have done, at the end of it I have been hurt because most of the time your role gets cut or trimmed. Whenever I perform, performances are not appreciated by the makers, in fact they are edited," he claims.
"I get my due in television. And I don't consider TV as a smaller industry when compared to films. You prepare for a film, you shoot it for about 10 months and within a week, the fortune of the film is told, whether it's a flop or a hit. But in the TV industry, we turn up every day and the shows go on for years, which proves that it's a hit. That's a lot more responsibility. There is pressure, but there is also pleasure doing this," he concludes.
