‘TV ACTORS SELL THEMSELVES OUT CHEAP’
The existence of a hierarchy between television and film actors is a never-ending debate. And, the latest artiste to speak up is Kavita Kaushik. She shared, on Twitter, a picture which talked about what famous personalities did at the age of 23. Rajinikanth was mentioned as a bus driver, Akshay Kumar a waiter and Shah Rukh Khan had the words ‘TV serial’ written before actor.
“TV actors have been facing this for so many years now,” Kaushik argues, adding, “This is my 20th year of being an actor. I’m a village girl, whatever I’ve achieved — houses, cars, bikes — is all thanks to television. I know the kind of talent this medium requires.”
Drawing a comparison between film and TV actors, and how the latter are hard-working, she reveals she comes from an era when there weren’t as many teleprompters to help actors say their dialogues. “I know so many TV actors who’ve read pages and pages of scripts without a teleprompter, while hosting shows. I’m sorry to say, but I know a lot of film actors who can’t deliver a one-line dialogue without fumbling,” she notes.
The 40-year-old had tweeted, “…I have major respect for all professions but the way “TV serial actor” is compared here with the ‘supposedly’ not so glorious jobs is like “waah film kar lo toh God aur TV pe acting toh watchmen ho bhai (sic)”. Clarifying that she didn’t intend to put down any profession, she insists her post only reflected reality.
“It’s like all other jobs are menial; once you become a film star, you’re like God. I have more respect for my watchman than a random CEO of a big company, who is on his own power trip,” quips the FIR and Tota Aur Maina actor.
Kaushik is yet to understand why this hierarchy is still prevalent. “Maybe TV actors sell themselves out cheap,” she says. “TV actors belittle themselves in front of film actors, directors on reality shows; they’ll take anything thrown at them. Half the time, it’s the fault of TV actors, who often treat film people like Gods,” Kaushik rues, recalling her stint on a dance reality show.
“When a film actor would come, all red carpets would roll out and we TV actors were treated like cattle,” she confesses.