Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hain fame SAANAND VERMA speaks with MUSBA HASHMI about how acting happened to him and that he had to sell his car in the early days of his career
He is anokha, humorous and one of the most entertaining character in &TV’s rib-tickling show Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hain. Meet Anokhe Lal Saxena aka Saanand Verma, who have never feared challenges in his life.
Verma has been receiving immense love and appreciation for playing Saxenaji, however doing TV was not on his cards until he had an encounter with the show’s director Shashank Bahl.
“I never wanted to do TV. My aim was to pave my way into Bollywood. Therefore, I didn’t want to expose myself much at that time because then you get restricted to TV. One fine day, I came in contact with Shashank Bahl and I started doing FIR. The reason I chose the show was because it gave me space to hide my identity as I had to play different characters in disguise for different episodes. After the show got off-air, Shashank offered me to play Saxenaji in his new show. I wasn’t sure of taking it up. But, once I read the script and got to know about my character, there was no reason to turn down the offer. It was the character which was never played on screen before and I was blessed to have gotten the opportunity to play such a character,” he says.
Verma believes that a director is like the captain of the ship. If the director is good, the end results will definitely be good. “During the shoot, Shashank not only help us improvise our characters but he tries to bring out the best of the script. It is all about team work. If you see my character closely, the punch line is ‘I like it’. The line and when Saxenaji rolls his eyes was Shashank's brainchild and I gave it the right tone. So, definitely a director's part is of immense importance but when you work together on a project, it all depends on team work. We all do new improvisations in our characters on a daily basis and the learning process is never ending,” he tells you.
Verma is all praise for his director and believes that he is the most funny person on the sets. “The atmosphere on the sets is very light-hearted and the credit goes to Shashank. He tries his best to make everyone feel comfortable on the sets. He gives the script a vision and almost 40 per cent of the comical elements are added by him in the final script. Apart from him, I am the most mazakiya person on the sets. I make sure that everyone is laughing and is in a happy mood during shooting,” he tells you.
But, as everything comes with a price, to reach this stage in his life, Verma too had to make several sacrifices. “I come from a humble background. There were times when my family didn't have money to eat. But as time passes, those time passed too. I went on to study and eventually got a job in a MNC. I worked with the company for nine years and there was a time when I had a package of Rs 50 lakh per annum. But, I wasn’t satisfied with my work. It felt like something is missing and that was acting. Since my childhood, I was always interested in performing arts. Then one fine day, I decided to quit my job and go on to pursue acting. I had a house in Mumbai, which in itself was a big thing. But I had to pay the home loan, with the PF money that I got after quitting my job, I paid my house loan. I was left short on money. I had to sell my car because I wasn’t in a position to pay the EMIs. I suffered from a financial crunch again during that time,” he recalls.
Leaving behind a luxurious lifestyle and starting everything from the scratch was not a piece of cake. “I had never travelled in Mumbai’s local trains. The first day when I was going for auditions, I tried to board a train, I was shocked to see the situation. I knew I couldn’t do that. I thought of commuting by bus, which again was a tedious task. Affording a rickshaw or a taxi was not in my budget so I decided to walk to the audition venue. I used to walk almost 14 hours a day,” he tells you.
Now, after 10 years, Verma feels blessed to have got the opportunity to play some of the best roles which people still cherish. Tharki Patel in Pataakha (his first film as lead), Satyanarayan Dubey in Apharan and the most recent hostel staff in Chhichhore where though the role was small but a prominent one, he believes.
His approach towards acting is to get into the skin of the characters.
“For me, there is no existence of Saanand Verma. I am just the characters that I play. I am nothing apart from that. I believe in living and feeling my characters. Whenever you are playing intense characters for instance Saxenaji, you have to be careful enough to maintain the comical timings and to express your character without losing the essence of it,” he tells you and adds that when not acting he is an unpredictable person. Some people think he is arrogant and others that he is a humble and down-to-earth person. And he loves to remain like this.
Verma, currently is in talks for some projects which are not yet finalised. But, definitely good things are waiting ahead for him which the audience will get to know about soon.
