I regret that I was not in touch with her during her last days: Shashank Vyas on late co-star Pratyusha Banerjee

MUMBAI: Shashank Vyas is a well-known television actor who has proved his mettle by working in several shows. He began his career with Balika Vadhu, which also starred late actress Pratyusha Banerjee. The actor called the show a workshop and fondly remembered Pratyusha.

Speaking about Balika Vadhu, the actor, who was last seen in Roop: Mard Ka Swaroop, told TimesofIndia.com, “Balika Vadhu was not a workplace for me, it was a workshop. I feel blessed, I got a chance to be a part of that show. I think no actor is bigger than script, if a script is badly written, no actor will be able to do justice. I worked with some brilliant actors there, some of them were NSD passouts. It was my debut show and everyone made me comfortable. Today, whatever I know about acting is because of Balika Vadhu and tomorrow wherever I reach in my career will be because of Balika Vadhu.”

Talking about late actress Pratyusha Banerjee, he said, “I have seen the growth of Pratyusha on personal and professional level. I still remember she had given 30 retakes during her first shot in Jodhpur. I have also seen her performing five page scenes in one go and I used to envy her. She used to mug up lines very fast and I used to take a hell lot of time. I used to praise her eyes a lot uski aankhen baatein karti thi. My father used to praise her a lot and say that she was good with her emotional scenes. Now, I feel that there was pain inside her and that's the reason she used to connect a lot with her emotional scenes. Be it happiness or sad stories, we used to share a lot with each other. We used to fight a lot over our scenes in a healthy way.”

When asked if he regrets for not being in touch with her when she was going through a rough patch during her last days, he said, “I wish I was in touch with her when she took such a drastic step. If we would have continued talking and not lost touch I could have talked to her and found a solution. We always discussed problems with each other and I had told her numerous times that no problem is bigger than you or no emotion is bigger than your life. I always regret that I was not in touch with her during her last days. I miss her a lot. She was my first heroine, my first co-star. We auditioned for the role together. I still remember since we had to work together and prepare our line we went to a coffee shop together, to have a better understanding. There are so many precious memories with her.”