“If the role demands that I lose weight I am game but no one has body shamed me till date”

AMBIKA RANJANKAR

In this interview AMBIKA RANJANKAR, who plays the role of Mrs Haathi in Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashmah, tells JYOTHI VENKATESH, who has also acted in two episodes of the serial with Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan and Asin to promote the film Bol Bachchan that it was very easy to play the cool next door lady in the serial.

How would you describe your role as Mrs Komal Haathi in TMKOC?

Komal in TMKOC is a very cool next door lady. She is cool, confident and not over stressed about her looks. She dresses well, cooks good food and is happy go lucky. She helps her husband by assisting him while he's attending to his patients, and pampers her son and she finds it very offensive even if someone raises his voice against her "baby" and she's fast to react to it with a strict "Excuse Me". A lot of women come up to me and compliment me for wearing mangalsutra over western outfits and say that they've started wearing it too... They make me say "Oh, Come On" and tell me that they use it very often in their homes.

Is Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashmah your first serial as an actress?

No,  Tarak Mehta is not my  first serial as an actress. I've been working in serials since 1993, right from the time when I was studying in college. Few other serials were Kasam Se, Chalti Ka Naam Gaddi,  Ek Packet Ummeed, Meri Biwi Wonderful, Shubh Mangal Savadhan and last but not the least, besides Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashmah were Main Office Tere Aangan Ki

How did you bag the opportunity to act in the serial?

Most of the directors/ producers have offered me work because they have seen me performing in inter collegiate plays or professional plays.

Where did you learn acting?

 I studied in Mithibai College and participated in several inter collegiate competitions.  Like INT, IPTA, COPWOOD, MALHAR MOOD INDIGO, though frankly, I haven't done a separate course for acting.

Were you subjected to any kind of body shaming over your weight?

No, I haven't been body shamed as yet. It is only majorly because I respect myself and people have seen my dedication, passion, sincerity, performances, punctuality, ability to sing and dance gracefully and I suppose these qualities have over shadowed me being overweight.

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When did you realize that you are popular as an actress?

While studying in Mithibai College, even though my name was mentioned on the notice board quite a few times for achievements in inter collegiate plays, no one knew me personally till I did an episode in the then popular serial "Filmi Chakkar". From the very next day, my professors noticed that I was the one who was on TV the previous night.  I always sat in the first bench but participated in inter collegiate plays.They made it a point to see to it that in case I missed lectures the class was helpful in sharing notes with me! The second time was when my hoarding for TMKOC was put up and though not a single episode had been aired as yet, people recognized me and came up to me and said "Madam humne aapka poster dekha hai, aapka serial aane wala hai, all the best.

Why are you not taking up offers to act in Marathi films or serials?
I'd love to act in as many languages as I can but right now due to my commitment with this single project I don't take up any other projects.  By the way, I started my acting profession with Marathi professional plays. And it would be an honor to do Marathi projects.

What do you like about acting?

If you are lucky to get into acting, you automatically get the power to take the viewers into a completely different world and make them believe in that world and make them forget their world for at least some time.

Aren't you scared of being typecast as a comedienne?

Being blessed to have done theatre (Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati) I've done different roles and those who've seen my plays as a versatile actor, would agree that it's not at all possible for me to get type cast in "comedy".

Are you a natural actress who can perform by intuition or a method actress, who needs guidance from your director on the sets?

 I go with the flow, I remain natural but if the director instructs I think about it and give my best to the scene. I'm flexible and have no particular method of acting.

How would you rate Asit Modi as a producer?

I address Mr Asit Modi as Annadata as I feel that he is a good producer with a kind heart and is farsighted at the same time.

Who is the director of the serial TMKOC? What do you have to say about your director?

In these 12 years we've had many directors who've directed TMKOC. I've worked with a few of them for their plays or serials so it was fun to have them around. Dharmesh Mehta was in the beginning, I’d done a Gujarati play with him for which he was the producer. Then came Dharampal and Dheeraj Palshetkar and I'd worked with both of them.  With Dharampal I was in a Gujarati play called "Chanu Ne Chhapanu Kai Thai Nai" in which Dilip Joshi was also there. Dhiraj and Dharampal were directing Shubh Mangal Savadhan, and I was a part of that play too. I'd worked with them earlier. Right now the serial is directed by  Harshad Joshi and Malav Rajda.This is the first time for me to work with them, but it didn't take more than a couple of days to gel with them. The TMKOC entire unit is our second family as all the directors are extremely good and have succeeded in bringing the best out of us.

Who are your favorite comedians on TV?

My favorite comedian on TV is Dilip Joshi. I've been working with him since 2003, but there's still something new with him every time and comedy just flows naturally.  Satish Shah is also my all time favorite. Of course I've been blessed to share screen space with him in Filmi Chakkar,  Ratna Pathakji is fabulous and has her own style of comedy.

Who are your favorite comedians in films?

 Satish Shah, Paresh Rawal, Javed Jaffery , Jhonny Lever and  Ashwini Kalsekar are among my favorite comedians in films.

What was your experience of interacting with different stars while shooting for TMKOC?

We are really blessed to have worked with most of the big stars and with every star we have had a special experience, and some of them have come more than once.  They ask us how we manage to do the same thing with so much of zest for such a long time. Most of them admire us for our team spirit and love us deeply. Some have confessed they actually look forward to come to our show for promotion.

Do you have plans to slim to take up more different roles?

 If the role demands that I lose weight I'm game, but since there's such a boom and so many platforms are up, a need for character having my appearance is also looked for.  They need good performers, and I guess we need to come in different shapes.

What do you feel when you look back at your acting career of the last 27 years?

 I'm happy the way life has taken me. I've been blessed to do theatre plays in 3 languages- Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati, participate and win in inter collegiate competitions,  act in serials,  do movies, and while doing all this I've tried my best to play my roles of daughter, sister, wife and mother Did you say 27 years? Oh God, I. didn't realize. Touch wood. So far it has been so good.

Is it true that you have been greatly inspired by Ravi Dubey? Why?

 Yes, it's true I'm inspired by actor Ravi Dubey, who is a very hard working guy, dedicated, straight forward yet humble, spiritual and peaceful and also grounded and how!!! I keep seeing his posts and many of his posts help me lift up my spirit. I've seen how long Ravi has come and I just love him and his wife Sargun and I wish that God blesses both of them with even more success and great heights of achievements.

Tell me about your experience of having acted in plays in not only Hindi but also Marathi and Gujarati?

I started with Marathi professional plays. I think in the very first play I was blessed to work with Vijay Patkar, in the year 1993. I was in the college and Patkar was a big name even then! Marathi plays have their show in the remotest village and many a times without proper stage, there have been funny incidents on stage due to uneven stage. Hindi plays, though not many shows happen.I still loved the experience.... I've been really blessed to have worked with Paresh Rawal and we'd performed in Jaipur when we had Maharani Gayatridevi and Kapil Dev in the audience. Another play I worked with was Javed Jaffery who was playing 5 different roles and it was really fun to have worked with him. Though while doing Hindi plays I went abroad, I should say while doing Gujarati plays my passport was all full for 4 years and in alll these languages that I worked in, I have had wonderful memories as well as experience. I'm still in touch with most of them.

To what extent does your husband encourage you? How supportive of your work is he? Where does he work? How proud is he of you?

 My husband Arun Ranjankar used to direct plays for Mithibai while I was studying and participating in the competitions. He was my first director. No. Actually we had two directors as Mukesh Jadhav also directed at that time and they used to go with the name Arun/ Mukesh. My hubby has been very supportive not only because he's from this industry but also because he's very caring, loving and understanding.  He's guided me, criticized me, helped me and has always been there for me patient and cool. He's also a director and has directed lots of Hindi serials for various channels and has also directed one Gujarati serial, for which he got best director award too.

Is it true that till date you have managed to bag all acting assignments even without going in for an audition or a screen test?

I've not given any screen test or audition till date.  I was approached by producers or directors who saw my performance during competitions or professional plays. My name was recommended by Dilip Joshi and Umesh Shukla to Asit Modi for TMKOC.