Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion, the film on, er, the fashion industry, originally did not star Harsh Chhaya. “I wasn’t considered for the role,” he says. Chhaya plays an effeminate gay designer which is totally against his real-life persona. “I wanted to play the part so I prepared a screen-test video at home on my computer and gave it to Madhur,” he recalls. “Within a week, I had the part.”

Chhaya agrees that the roles he is getting in films are not fully to his satisfaction but he is optimistic. “Films will take its own time,” he says. “I’m no hotshot. They give me roles I don’t want to do and I don’t get the roles I want to do,” he explains candidly.

Chhaya however doesn’t believe in staying idle. He is currently acting in the play Kachche Lamhe. “There’s a different energy that carries me through a play,” he says comparing it with television. “Each show is a different experience. It is like we are doing it for the first time because there is a new audience every time,” he explains.

After more than eight years in the television industry, Chhaya is disappointed about the way the business is run nowadays. Recently, he filed a complaint with the Cine and TV Artists association about the abrupt halt in his track in SaharaOne’s Ghar...Ek Sapnaa.

Almost two weeks later, there is no resolution in sight. “There is no solution till everyone understands the meaning of business,” he says. He agrees that for any change to happen, it will take time. “During the shoot, the producers often complained that other actors hardly gave them time because they were shooting for three or four serials at the same time. I’m doing only this one serial so that I can do justice to the role and always gave them time. Now they do this.” He is also miffed at the serial’s director and his close friend Ajai Sinha. “A director of his stature will know people in the channel,” he feels.

While he doesn’t hold Sinha responsible for his track being put on hold, he says Sinha “hasn’t done anything to compensate me either. He says he’ll pass on my message to the channel while the channel says my contract is with him. They are just passing the ball around. It’s totally unfair”. All Chhaya looks for is “a good part to play in a good production with good people”.