Punjabis at heart

Sheetal

Real heroes live amongst us and they are never perfect, in fact the word perfect is overrated. Ever heard a fairytale where the heroine or hero is not fair? Well, it is because the world ain’t fair. While this concept is challenged many a time in the past, a new show Kartik Purnima brings a fresh take to the prejudice people hold against those wtirh dark complexion. The show brings a Cinderella story of a dusky girl—Purnima, who considers her skin colour to be her mother’s blessing. Tortured by her stepmother and step-sister, her prince charming — Kartik—comes to the rescue.

Since this Cindrella story has been given a Punjabi touch, so the lead pair and the team visit Chandigarh to promote their show. The main characters of the show include Harsh Nagar, Poulami Das and Kavita Ghai. With initial shooting in Amritsar, the show is set to go on air on February 3.

Love for the cuisine

Poulami Das, who will be seen portraying the role of Purnima on the show, is Bengali by birth but confesses her love for Punjabi food and culture. She says, “Two of my best friends are Punjabi. We celebrate everything together and this Lohri we went to Partap Da Dhaba in Mumbai and ate Sarson da Saag, Tawa Machi and Lassi.”

Going by the role she is playing, does she face this kind of discrimination in real life for having a dusky skin tone? She answers, “No, I never came across such a thing. On the contrary, I got selected in shows because of my colour. Though there were many scenes in the show that made me cry in the show, but anyhow in real life I will never take that nonsense. I am very strong, and I feel there is a Sardarni hidden in me somewhere.”

No space for boyfriend in real life, she does confess that she dated an Italian guy for more than four years but long distance was hard to handle.

Gurdas Maan- the role model

Delhi guy, Harsh Nagar was surrounded by many Punjabis throughout his life and that helped him play a Punjabi guy on screen. He says, “When I heard about the role, the soulfulness of Kartik’s character made me connect to it. Although I am a Punjabi in the show, but to play the part of a shy, old-school, principled man needed preparation. Gurdas Maan fits into that description and thus he became my reference point.”

From advertisement to movies to now television, what convinced Harsh to take up television? He says, “To be very frank, I recently finished a horror comedy film starring Sunny Leone and switching to television is a big step because of long working hours. If ads are T20, movies are ODI matches, and television of course is the test match.”