Hearty chat with Barkha Bisht

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

A simple dusky girl Barkha Bisht appears to be on cloud nine after grabbing a role of the lead protagonist in Arooni Irani's 'Doli Saja Ke...' But having been troubled by health problems owing to over work, Barkha is now also ready to compromise on her anchoring and is thinking to quit Popcorn News for the new assignment. We recently caught up with her and in a brief tÊte-À-tÊte, the actress tells us how happy she is and describes her present assignment, future plans. Here is the excerpt.

How did you get into acting?
Actually, since my childhood I wanted to become a television actor, but as my dad is in the Army and he never took acting seriously. So I started working in a call center as a voice trainer for four years. Then there was an All-India Talent Hunt by Balaji and MTV and I got selected. My first serial was Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi on MTV and from there my journey in television started.

You have been doing both anchoring as well as acting. Which do you feel is a tough one?
Yes, I am doing both. I anchor a show called Popcorn News on Zoom TV and also act in daily shows. Actually anchoring is a bit easy job, as one has to be more of oneself. But acting is not easy and it is also a distressed job. Acting in even a two-minute scene takes two hours and so we need to work 18-20 hours a day. Again talking about money factor, I definitely earn more in daily soaps than from anchoring.

So, how do you manage both?
Actually, it has started getting hectic now. Doing a daily show with anchoring is not at all a cat walk, as it almost consumes my whole day. So it has started affecting my health too. Like a few days ago, I fainted on sets of both Popcorn and Doli Saja Ke due to over work.

So, how are going to cope up with the fainting spells?
I have realized that health is very important. So I need to take care of myself too and I am planning to quit Popcorn News as doing a daily with anchoring is getting tough for me now.

Any plans for venturing into Bollywood?
No, not actually. I never had an eagerness to get into movies. Maybe the casting couch is one of the reasons, but there are good people too. Other than that I am happy with television as I had always dreamed of becoming an television actor and not a Bollywood actor. But if I get a very good role I might think of acting in movies too.