‘I call myself a dinosaur’

You shouldn’t take long to recall the petite beauty Smita Bansal. She was there in television serials like Challenge, Sarhadein, Amanat and CID.

That vivacious personality and that charming smile are indeed hard to forget. And now Smita is back (after several years) as Sumitra, playing a doting mother-in-law to Anandi in the serial Balika Vadhu.

We caught up with the talented actress to find out where she was hiding all these years."I took a break because I had a child – my daughter Stasha – to take care of. I got married seven years ago and wanted to be a full time mom to Stasha." But it was Smita’s passion for acting that brought her back in front of the camera. "Stasha has grown up and has started going to school. I thought it was best to come back to acting. That's the only thing I can do."

But wasn't she wary of appearing as a mom on screen? "Most of the actresses of my generation are playing moms now, so I was okay with it. So age-wise it was okay with me. Besides, though I am playing a mother-in-law, it’s to a kid."

Apart from Balika Vadhu (BV), Smita was also seen in the film Karzzzz as Himesh Reshammiya's sister. "Doing this role in the movie was great fun. I enjoyed seeing myself on the big screen," she says.
Smita has her hands full with BV and she says she doesn't even have time to breathe. And referring to the TV industry as a ‘whirlwind’, Smita says, "I call myself a dinosaur ’coz I'm such an old part of this industry. Things function in a very different way now. In my time, there used to be weeklies, now there are dailies because of which things are rather disorganised. Actors are not given bound scripts; no one knows what they are doing on which day. At one point of time I was doing 11 serials simultaneously, but never felt so exhausted as I do now with just two daily soaps."

Smita has noticed another big change. "I don't believe the amount of money that is involved in TV these days," she exclaims. "The stars earn in a day what we used to earn in a month! Also, in our times, the director used to have the final word. Nobody could interfere in his work. But ab to koi bhi kuch bhi bol sakta hai," says Smita.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com