Kushal Punjabi is on a high these days

Kushal Punjabi is quite excited about his new Life OK show, Aasman Ke Aage, where he plays the role of a dance choreographer. “I play Allen, the mentor of the lead girl Meenakshi (Ojaswi Oberoi). In fact, he is the only person who stands by her for she is here (Aasman Ke Aage reality dance show) only for dance and not to play politics. My character is completely opposite to that of DC (Apoorva Agnihotri) who believes anything is fair for TRPs in reality shows. Allen wonders why talent is not given importance in this competition while other factors like money and poverty are paid more attention. There is also a back story to my character which will be revealed later,” shares Kushal. Looking ahead in the show, this Gladrags Manhunt Contest winner (2000) says, “Well right now there is nothing romantic between Meenakshi and Allen. He is just sympathetic towards her as she is talented and he just wants her back on the show. But when she starts getting close to Akshat (Siddhant Karnick), he questions himself as to why is he getting edgy? ” Kushal, who is himself a choreographer in real life, states that he was chosen for this role as he had the right body language. So what is the reality behind reality shows? “The stunts or dance performances by the contestants are for real. There is slight cheating but that is for the safety bit. And some time drama introduced just to keep the viewers entertained,” informs Kushal who has participated in reality shows like Mr. & Ms. TV, Fear Factor even won Zor Ka Jhatka. He entered television in 2002 with the show Arranged Marriage and has done other shows like Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat, Santaan, Antariksh and Yeh Dil Chahe More. However, he has deliberately avoided doing large number of fiction shows as he can’t work 30 days a month. “I would have burnt out and become a zombie. The way I have planned my career i.e. doing TV for around 15 days leaves me enough time for my other passions which include theater, adventure sports and films. I have done Lakshya, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal and Kaal.” Currently, he has just finished shooting for an English film, Graveyard Shift with Bhavna Pani and will also be seen in Ekta Kapoor produced Rock The Shaadi which will see him sharing parallel role along with Genelia D’Souza and Abhay Deol. “I am also listening to one more script and if everything works out, we will start shooting this Vicky Donor type comic film very soon,” he ends.