Veteran actor Poonam Dhillon is unhappy with the progress of her track in Ekta Kapoor’s new television drama; opts out of it.

As the progress of her character in the storyline was being pushed, the veteran actor felt it was better to leave the Karan Kundrra-starrer than continue

Within a week of her new TV show going on air, veteran actor Poonam Dhillon has quit the Ekta Kapoor production. “As the storyline wasn’t going the way I thought, I have quit the show,” says Dhillon. The serial that stars Karan Kundrra is a story about a rich guy who hates all women except ones in his family. Dhillon played the role of the stepmother to Karan’s character. She adds, “I was told my character will be a central one and a linear track with my character will play out but that’s not happening, right now. They have deviated from it and moved on to the love story of the leads. It wasn’t gratifying for me to continue. I thought it is best to leave before the show makes too much headway and my exit disrupts the story and the team a lot. When you do television, your whole life comes to a standstill, so unless the work excites you, it is not worth it. As my role wasn’t a central one in the story, waiting six to seven hours at times for a shot didn’t work for me.” Dhillon spoke to the creative team who told her that the focus right now is on the love story between the young couple and they will focus on the stepmother story track later. “I felt it is really not something that will make me happy. I would like to do a role that is more gratifying. Even if I am working 12 hours a day, I want to be working, not sitting in my room for eight hours waiting for my shot. Doing TV means, for the next one year I would be committed to it. It was better to leave,” she says. The actor’s last TV show was Ekk Nayi Pehchaan, which was about women empowerment through education.

When you do television, your whole life comes to a standstill, so unless the work excites you, it is not worth it. As my role wasn’t a central one in the story, waiting six to seven hours at times for a shot didn’t work for me. POONAM DHILLON, ACTOR