Ashish Kaul opens up about being part of Channa Mereya

“I'm playing Anand, who is Puneet Issar's elder son, Shakti Anand's elder brother. My character is very positive and always happy with his family. I play a compassionate family member who makes sure to prioritise family peace over everything else. He doesn't involve himself in family politics and he doesn't have any ego problems. Whenever there is a fight between women, he sorts it very wisely now because he is a positive person. He is a good husband and a father. The only thing is that he doesn't react to everything. His wife is very aggressive and he helps her to be quiet. He doesn't like to get into power politics of the house because of which his wife has issues but he doesn't have any problem as he knows that this is the best decision and lets the younger brother deal with the factory and the house,” he says.

He adds, “I think the show is the talk of town because of its freshness. The shots which they took in Punjab are amazing. The star cast is really nice because we are shooting in two units. Ginnie i.e Niyati who is the main lead, has a unit to shoot with and we have a different unit to shoot at home. We don't meet each other but the people I shoot with are incredible. We eat together. I learn so much as they are senior actors too. Each one is rehearsing and helping each other with scenes so it's a nice environment on the set.”

Talking about working with Yash and Mamta Patnaik (Beyond Dreams), he says, “This is my second show with Yash and Mamta. Earlier I did Ishq Mein Marjawan with Arjun Bijlani. I know the directors and production. They are very professional and nice human beings.”

Meanwhile, the actor talks about how it’s challenging to survive with unique storylines on TV. “I think more of the storyline comes back to saas bahu. They might start unique stories too but keeping the Indian audience intact they come back to the same. I believe Star Bharat has come up with a new look and new strategies. Keeping that in mind they might take a few calls but it's totally up to the channel how they do it but till now the story is fresh and I love the look of the story. The story is very youthful and the sense of humour is very nice.”

However, he says that a lot has changed in the industry now, and some of it is more challenging. “Change is part of life so you can't comment on it. Obviously, the technology is not the same from tapes to digital. Actors are the same, we still have to act in front of the camera. We have come to work as an actor and we are doing exactly that. Now the audiences of daily soaps have warmed up to a different genre altogether. Also, makers are doing the show premier in the day on the web, so that has become a challenge. It's not an easy thing to deal with when people already know what is going to come in the evening because of social media. I'm nobody to comment on that but as a viewer if you know the story in the morning the challenge to see it in evening is much deeper so I'm sure the channel is doing something for that. Rest the storyline is good people do watch it once or twice if you love the product, the repeat value is always there.”