poonam dhillon

Another star struck by television
She debuted on the silver screen at the age of 16 and the glam babe didn’t take long to achieve success. But she got married at the ‘peak’ of her career and quit movies when she was doing very well for herself. After a hiatus of two and half years Poonam Dhillon faced the camera again. Not for a film but a star-studded serial called Andaaz. After doing the serial for about a year, she vanished from the small screen for nearly five years.

Six months ago she made a comeback on the tele-screen as a hostess of a women-oriented health show called The Chust Drust Show. And now she is playing a central role in Cinevista’s U Turn being directed by Vinta Nanda which will debut on a satellite channel in the next three months.

During the last five years that she was away from the arc lights, looking after her home, hearth and kids and doing some charitable work, Poonam didn’t miss acting and the fast life of the glamour world. "I didn’t even think about it because I was focussed on my kids," says the veteran actress who is still eminently attractive and physically trim and fit.

Then how did television happen all of a sudden six years ago and after a gap of five years she is back on the tele-screen again? "Actually, I have been getting offers to act in serials for several years. Andaaz came my way when my first child was two and half years old. At that point of time I didn’t want to work for 25 days in a month. I took up Andaaz because it required me to shoot for a few days in a month which was just ideal and appropriate for me," explains Poonam who played one of the central characters in the soap.

Poonam says she was noticed and appreciated for the role and the experience was quite gratifying. But after Andaaz she chose not to work because she had her second child and the kids had to be looked after well. "As a professional I have done a lot of work and as a mother I wanted to give my full attention to my children," says Poonam who during the five-year hiatus worked in bits and pieces. Like she produced and anchored a cookery show for DD Metro called The Restaurant Show and directed and ad film for Bajaj Hair oil. However, she had put the thought of acting on hold.

The reason for returning to acting, according to Poonam, is that she is not the person to sit at home doing nothing. "I have always been working though at a limited pace," she says. And though she has always been getting offers, she chose to do U Turn because Cinevista, in her opinion, is a very professional production house and moreover, the serial is being directed by Vinta whom Poonam knows from her school days in Chandigarh. "Also the story sounded interesting," she adds.

U Turn is an emotional story of husband-wife relationship which reaches the point of friction, stagnation and frustration for both and how the couple rework their relationship. "The friction is a result of stagnation," informs Poonam who not only identifies with the story but feels a lot of women will also able to relate to it because such things happen in a long relationship. "But the best thing about the serial is that it ends on a positive note and has a message," she says with a smile which is as infectious as it was in her hey days.

Poonam Dhillon landed in Bollywood and the fast life of glamour world in the late ’70s and debuted on the silver screen in Trishul and went on to do about 80 films before retiring into matrimonial bliss and motherhood. But she says she didn’t take acting that seriously for the first few years but became more focused and started understanding the making of a motion picture after she did films like Noorie, Red Rose and Sohni Mahiwal.

She finds it difficult to go down memory lane but says out of the 80-odd films that she did, she hated doing quite a few and some she has totally forgotten about. "But on the whole it was a very gratifying experience and I loved all the appreciation and recognition I got," she gushes.

Wanting to live quality life, she doesn’t want to over-stretch herself with lot of work. "I want to work for my mental peace and therefore I want to work at a leisurely pace because I want to spend enough quality time with my kids," she says.

That may be because she is a single parent and the responsibility on her lean shoulders is double. The statement evokes an immediate reply, "Well being a parent is difficult but it’s pleasurable too. But being a single parent means you don’t have a support system."

She finds television a comfortable medium, "Therefore television will continue though on a very selective basis, because I want to enjoy my work without any stress,". SO don’t be surprised if you see her on the big screen as well sometime in future.

AL Chougule