Khushi Dubey: ‘In finite shows, stories are not dragged for TRPs’

Remember the child actor from Dil Dhadakne Do 2015 who delivered some of the best lines with a poker face Today at 24 Khushi Dubey is a far cry from that But her ease in front of the camera remains unchanged After fronting Aashiqana the actor is now basking in the popularity of Jubilee Talkies a sweeping love story set against the backdrop of the film industry In conversation with midday Dubey discusses how Jubilee Talkies stands out in the TV world where overacting sells and starting from square one in the industry despite being a child actor beforeEdited excerpts from the interviewHow do you see your journey from a child actor to reentering the industry as an adultThe most important thing is that you have to be a good actor It is possible to gain the same stardom that one got in his childhood as an adult Things might get tougher but ultimately it depends on your acting prowess In 2016 I quit everything to focus on studies for four years Then I had to start from square one with AashiqanaDo you find it easy to navigate Bollywood to get a roleIt is a little tough although now people directly approach me for a role However I still have to audition for the bigger projects Irsquom not the kind of person who socialises to get roles In fact I am bad at making contacts I have seen people getting projects because they are friends with those who are influential but I never felt like making friends for a projectA still from Jubilee TalkiesWhen you took up Jubilee Talkies did you have any apprehensions that it could go off air soonI donrsquot stress about it The show could be pulled off air for any reason and I can only focus on acting If I start thinking about the longevity of the show my performance may go for a toss No one person can be blamed for a show not working While I want it to run for a long time I have never insisted that it run for a year Even if itrsquos a sixmonth show itrsquos fine by me The beauty of finite shows is that they have a fixed and crisp storyline Stories are not dragged for TRPsIn television the longer a show runs the more success it garners How do you approach a show in such an environmentI try to gauge if I am happy with what I am doing Am I happy doing a saasbahu drama Is it giving me creative satisfaction I ask myself these questions I liked Jubilee Talkies because it was unconventional compared to other TV shows I know the storyline until the end and it is not dragging or monotonous Even when Saurabh Tewari producer was narrating the story to me at a lot of high points I was quite surprised If you cannot predict the story that means it is intriguing Seeing an ordinary woman enter a superstarrsquos life may seem simple but the execution is largerthanlifeMadhubala was about a superstarrsquos loveandhate relationship with a common woman Would you still call it uniqueI have seen bits of Madhubala and Jubilee Talkies their storylines have nothing in common except that the protagonist is playing a star Deepak Chauhan sirrsquos direction and treatment are different We want to show the workings of the glamour and film industryDo you feel restricted as an actor on televisionA bit Sometimes the script is such where you cannot perform naturally the acting might get over dramatic But here I have lots to do My director has given me the freedom to let me act naturally and not go overthetopDo you find TV regressive otherwiseThat happens because they have to televise episodes every day So the storyline gets muddled people put anything senseless in the storyline when a certain plot point raises TRPs and that plot goes on for six months Thatrsquos why having a finite show is better it doesnrsquot experience this treatmentItrsquos difficult to connect you with the Dil Dhadakne Do girl who had some of the best dialogues in the film How different are the worlds of films and televisionIt is 180 degrees different from work culture to acting Movies are about being subtle especially Zoya marsquoam Akhtar director She has a clear vision and thought process Shersquod tell me that my character is deadpan so whatever she says it has to come off right You get a lot of time in movies to build your character The work culture in TV is hectic and there is too much on the plate