While actor Urvashi Dholakia has been pretty happy and content with journey on the small screen, she laments when show makers can’t see past her image of a vamp, courtesy her character of Komolika in Kasautii Zindagi Kay that made her a household name, and continues to follow her even after 15 years.
“Everyone still calls me Komolika. Just because one thing has become so powerful, it’s wrong to think I can’t do anything else. Where is the creativity of the producers and creative directors when they can’t think of me beyond that one role?” she questions, adding that due to this stereotyping, whatever she has done in the last so many years, hardly gets talked about.
In the recent years, Dholakia has starred in shows such as Chandrakanta, Ishq Mein Marjawan, Tu Aashiqui, Naagin 6, however, fans still complain that they get to see very less of her on screen. “I keep coming and going because something has to come my way which is more exciting that what I actually get. I can’t do the same monotonous thing again and again. I have been typecast so much. It’s like saying Rekha ne Umraao Jaan kia toh bas that is it, that is the peak of everything. No, it doesn’t stop there!,” reasons the actor.
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In fact, Dholakia reveals that immediately after Kasautii Zindagi Kay, she consciously decided to do Comedy Circus to break away from Komolika’s image in audience’s minds. “I am humbled that till today’s day and age, people share Komolika memes and reels, they keep me alive. I am beyond grateful. But, at the same time, I also want to be recognised for other roles that I have done,” she notes, pointing out the difficulties she has to face to break the image.
Currently seen in TV show Pushpa Impossible where she essays the role of a lawyer, Dholakia is hopeful that audience would accept her do something different. “I’m happy and thankful that the makers at least thought of me in a different light, and I got this chance to play an out and out positive character. I know miracles can’t happen, but there has to be a start somewhere. Now, when I hear people referring to me as Devi Singh Shikhavat (her role in the show), I feel the start has happened. So, yes, I’d love to do more such roles,” shares the actor, asserting that she won’t take up a negative role for any TV show.
“I have done that and I’ve set the bar. There’s nothing more for me as an actor when it comes to playing a negative role now. Even if I take up one character, people will start comparing it with Komolika. I would rather throw a spin ball to the audience where they feel that we didn’t know she could do something like this,” says the mother of two.
Asked if the digital medium interests her and Dholakia says it’s the fewer opportunities that are restricting her from taking the plunge. “OTT is a booming medium for sure. But, last year, I felt very dejected in the sense that people would tell me that you’re an overexposed TV face. I want to ask the world, ‘Which OTT platform has a show which does not have a TV face?’ So, why would you tell me that? Everyone is there then why I am I being treated differently? Also, I’m not getting that interesting projects on OTT, and somewhere I feel makers are not really seeing me in a different light,” she wraps up.
