MUMBAI: Several TV stars have expressed concerns recently over the work culture in the TV industry. Actress Krishna Mukherjee accused TV producer Kundan Singh of harassment while she was filming her Dangal television show, 'Shubh Shagun,' earlier this year.

Actress Ridhima Pandit claimed that she was subjected to "mental harassment" in one of her programs. Actor-producer Sargun Mehta has now asked actors to speak up if they experience any kind of inconvenience on set in an interview with the well-known news portal.

(Also read: Sargun Mehta Teases Exciting Collaboration with Neha Kakkar; can't wait for this one!)

“I feel that work harassment is not something that is only there on television sets. It is there maybe in every field. Even corporate-wise or wherever. I can only suggest that if anything is happening to you on the sets, you should speak up about it. Be candid or vocal about something like this to your producer. I’m sure they will take care of it immediately. I don’t think there is anything to hide,” Sargun said.

She went on to say that since a producer can't simply replace an actor from their program, actors shouldn't be afraid to express themselves.

“For no reason, you will not be ousted from the sets. Actors are not replaced from sets because a producer wants to. They will never be replaced like that. Nobody wants to replace an actor because we have put in our money, and hopes. We have spent so many months working on this character. Why would we want to replace an actor for something like this? I feel if there is a genuine conflict that they have, they should speak to them,” she added.

Sargun Mehta began her career as an actor, but she has now excelled as a producer as well. She produced well-known television programs, such as Junooniyatt and Udaariyaan. As a producer, it is challenging to manage costs. Fortunately, television producers do not have to worry about expensive entourage fees like they face in Bollywood.

“With TV actors, you don’t have set teams. You have a set team given by the producer, so everything works within a certain budget. I think everybody knows for a fact that television only works in an X amount of budget. Films have a very flexible budget. Some movies will be made in Rs 18 crores and others might have a budget of Rs 200 crore. There is no fixed budget for a film. In television, there is an X amount of budget that one works with and everybody is familiar with it,” Sargun said.

Although the expense of an entourage may not be a concern for Sargun as a producer, she is both anxious and enthusiastic about the upcoming fifteen-year leap for her show Udaariyaan. Speaking about the same topic, the actress stated, “I am equally excited and equally nervous, to be honest. I’m maybe a little bit more nervous because, you know, every time we take a leap, there is something else that pops in my head, I’m like, ‘What if this happens or what if that happens’. But this time, it’s a very young love story. So, this makes me very excited also. I want people to have a conversation so that I can be a part of it and feel like, ‘Okay, this is what I wrote and this is what they interpreted’. It makes me excited and nervous.”

(Also read: Sargun Mehta gives credit to Ekta Kapoor for paving the way for female producers in television)

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Credits – News 18