18th March, Mumbai: Actor Shakti Arora has quit the TV show Kundali Bhagya after a nine-month stint due to the upcoming 20-year leap in the storyline, which would require him and co-star Shraddha Arya to play parents to grown-up characters, something that Arora felt uncomfortable with.
Arora explained in an exclusive interview with us how this led him to leave the programme and search for personalities closer to his own age. I didn’t want to act like a father figure to a 28-year-old. If there’s a 4-5 year age difference between us, then I would be called their ‘son.’ That was a major reason.
Arora has also admitted that it bothers him to play a supporting role on a programme when he has previously played the lead. He declared, You no longer command the stage. Up until the point that I was on the show, I was the centre of attention. Playing Karan and Arjun was my role (Karan Luthra and Arjun Suryavanshi). For me as an actor, that was advantageous and fascinating. Given how uncommon it is to get such excellent work on television, I appreciated working on it. But as soon as I learned that the centre stage would belong to someone else, I calmly chose to leave and let others run the show for the time being.
The actor believes that if he has signed up for a show for a certain character who belongs to a certain age group, he needs to be portrayed in that way for the duration of the show. The actor has previously worked in shows like Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi. “He explains, You can’t just depict a 30-year-old man as an 80-year-old man.
When asked if he would consider playing a supporting or parallel character on a show that offers him creative satisfaction, even if it means not being in the central role, Arora responded by saying, I have played those kinds of roles before. I used to do those kinds of roles in the past. So, I don’t want to step down to that level. I want to move forward, where I play more pivotal roles that are message-oriented, life-changing, and thrilling. I would like to explore genres that I haven’t yet.
Arora mentioned that he is currently in talks for a few TV shows as well as a couple of OTT projects. However, he stated that he will talk about them once things are finalized.