Not the real Parvati!

Television actress Sonarika, who played Parvati, has been forced to clarify that she’s a regular human being

Television actress Sonarika has been forced to clarify that she’s a regular person

When TV actress Sonarika Bhadoria shared a bikini- clad vacation picture of herself on Instagram ( above), little did she know that the number of hate messages it receives would far outnumber the ‘ likes’ it gathers. Sonarika it seems had unwittingly upset a large number of her viewers who weren’t amused at the sight of ( onscreen) Parvati flaunting a bikini bod. The 23- year- old actress had portrayed the goddess in a show called Devon Ke Dev

Mahadev that aired two years ago and was very popular at the time.

After initially being amused at the reactions, Sonarika later was taken aback by how she is still associated with the mythological show.

She says, “I’m an actor, I play multiple characters but I’m Sonarika first and I’ve all the right to do things in my personal life as and when I want to,” she lashed out. “I’ve done much more after that and my life is just not about Parva ti. Were they expecting me to wear a salwar kurta

or a saree to the beach? I’m as normal as any other human being and allowed to do things just like the rest.”

Being expected to be an extension of their on- screen avatars in real life is an all- too- familiar scenario for actors in India. Sonarika’s co- star in the serial, Mohit Raina, who shot to fame as Shiva, sympathised with her predicament. “I think the day you decide to step into the profession, you need to forget that you have a ‘ personal’ life; you now become public property. Your fans refuse to accept the off- screen image and will always see you in that mould,” he sighs.

Apart from the outpouring of support on Instagram after her post, Sonarika is also receiving encouragement from actors in the TV industry. Kavita Kaushik, who is best known for her role as Chandra muk hi Ch au ta lain sitcom F. I. R. said, “While I don’t know Sonarika personally, I know she has a wonderful and fit body. She can wear whatever she wants; it’s her life. If people can’t understand that it’s a character that she’s playing, it is their problem.”

Actress Rashami Desai, who played Tapasya in Uttaran a few years ago, says she has had a fair share of run- ins with fans

about her negative character. “I was in a flight once and two very elderly gentlemen were audibly talking about me. My character was pregnant at the time and was lying about who the father was,” she recounts. “The men would pass loud comments and say ‘ yeh wahi hai na jo apne serial mein sabko maar deti

hai?’ In a bit one of them tapped me on my shoulder and asked me whose child I was carrying! I was very livid and gave them a piece of my mind,” she says.

Popular TV actor Kamya Punjabi, who has played several negative characters, explains that while people’s affinity with the characters can be taken as a compliment, fans must learn to maintain and respect boundaries. “We play characters for people’s entertainment, those characters don’t rule our lives,” she asserts. “There had been a

time when I was shooting in Madh Island and a woman who saw me as a character I played, actually came up to hit me!”

Mohit says that it’s difficult to expect fans to have the sort of understanding when his own near and dear ones are inclined to take the characters played on screen seriously. “When I played negative roles, I have met people who have asked me questions like, ‘ Tum real life

mey bhi itne gande ho?’ There was a time when my mother stopped talking to me for two days because I was playing such a role. ”

On her part, Sonarika is still trying to get over the rude shock. “People on social media think that they can get away with saying anything behind the shield of a username, to the extent that they tagged my mother and brother on my posts, exhorting them to rein me in,” she fumes. “I took down the photos, but my relatives and my mother said that I was taking the naysayers way too seriously,” she adds.

People exhorted my mother and brother to rein me in SONARIKA “There was a time when I was shooting in Madh Island and a woman who saw me as a character I played, actually came up to hit me!” — KAMYA PUNJABI