Varun Badola just can't do "anything and everything" only to be seen on TV

Varun Badola is back!!! Yes, the talented actor will be seen creating magic on the small screen all over again (after a year long hiatus) in Zee TV’s Phir Subah Hogi which will go on air from tomorrow (17 April 2012). The show deals with the illicit relationship of a landlord (Varun) and a village dancer (Narayani Shastri). While this talented actor personally has no issues playing a negative character, he does have a major grouse with TV writers and the way they handle negative characters. “In an attempt to make the protagonist look good they make the antagonist totally negative. There should be some balance as no person in life can be totally black or white. You need to show shades of grey,” avers Varun. So how do you deal with the above-mentioned situation? “By creating sympathy for the character through my actions. I have always been doing this in my twelve-year long career for I mostly got weaker characters to enact, be it the mentally challenged Neeraj in Koshish - Ek Aashaa or the immature younger husband Abhi, who gets a second wife in Astitva - Ek Prem Kahani. Similarly my role Sandeep in Aek Chabhi Hai Pados Mein was also about someone who did not succeed in life. Frankly, this is quite a challenge as we have to operate within the lines given to us but then how we try to push the envelope within the same limitation is what makes a real actor.” Varun also reveals that the industry has a negative impression about him that he gets too cagey regarding his roles and demands changes in the script. “I don’t think it is wrong if we actors give feedback to the creatives after having lived the same character for four to six months. I don’t think anybody else can better understand his /her inner nuances then us.” Coming back to Phir Subah Hogi, Varun does not feel that this rural concept of Bundelkhand Thakur’s preying on dancer woman will be alien to the urban audience. “Did Balika Vadhu, which dealt with peculiar regressive custom (child marriage) related to one particular state (Rajasthan), resonate across the country?” asks Varun. Quiz him about his absence from the TV since the last one year and he says, “I need something juicy. I just can’t do anything and everything only to be seen. And I have always been the Mohinder Amaranth of Indian telly in the sense that I keep taking breaks. My last show was Gili Gili Gappa on SAB TV which unfortunately did not work. SAB TV had launched a number of new shows in 2011 and most of them did not click.” Before that he had worked in Maan Rahe Tera Pitah (2010) on Sony Entertainment Television which again tanked in terms of numbers, “TRP pressures had forced the story to completely deviate from its original concept of a daughter’s love for her father,” he ends. Varun, we hope that Phir Subah Hogi goes on to become a great success. Amen!!!