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 She
is not like Parvati, the sugary-sweet and sacrificing bahu of the
Agarwal family who espouses family values and traditions. Nor is
she like Pallavi, a vamp out to rip apart the Agarwal khandaan,
only to repent later and turn into a nice, home and husband-loving
lady. On the contrary, she is the modern bahu of the Agarwal family
with a no-nonsense, tit-for-tat and ‘don’t mess up my
life or I will mess up yours’ kind of an attitude. Avantika
played by Sweta Keswani is brash and individualistic who wouldn’t
even mind wearing shorts in a traditional family where bahus and
betis are clad in designer sarees even while they are cooking in
a smoky kitchen. She may be hated for displaying her shapely thighs
which, leave alone the babuji and maaji, but also has her husband
going red in the face and running for cover from the dinning table.
Sweta Keswani who plays Avantika in Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki simply loves
to portray the role because, as the young actress says, “it
has varied shades.”
“It’s
a very interesting character,” gushes Sweta who entered the
Agarwal khandaan through a contractual marriage with babuji’s
middle son Ajay who was once a black sheep of the family. The bubbly
young actress with loads of confidence and poise who took to acting
for the heck of it nearly six years ago was without work for almost
three months. “I had done a few pilots but nothing was materializing.
The serials I was doing came to an end and there was nothing on
air except a few ad campaigns like Fairever and Brahmol hair oil.
That’s when the offer came from Balaji to play the role of
Avantika. “I liked the role because it’s not the role
of a mundane bahu but a very modern bahu who doesn’t mince
words and has a mind of her own,” explains Sweta admitting
that the role has brought her amazing popularity.
Elaborating,
Sweta says her contractual marriage is coming to an end but she
has fallen in love with her hubby and vice versa and she is looking
for excuses to live in the Agarwal family. But ask her whether she
will mend her ways and go the Pallavi way and Sweta says she really
doesn’t know what shape the character will take. “But
Avantika does have a certain vested interest,” she says tongue-in-cheek.
Which means probably the Agarwal boat which is sailing in calm waters
is headed towards a rough journey in choppy waters. “I really
don’t know where the story is headed,” is Sweta’s
crisp reply.
However, Sweta
feels Avantika is not a troublemaker like Pallavi was. “She
is not vindictive like Pallavi. She doesn’t have a grudge against
anyone. But yes, she is adamant, lives the way she wants to, doesn’t
cook like other bahus and lives in her own room because she is not
happy living in a joint family. But now that I am in love with Ajay
I may change a bit but there is a motive behind it,” elaborates
the young actresss who is also presently doing a plum role in Aroona
Irani’s Desh Mein Nikla Hoga Chand. She is playing a young
girl called Anu who is about to be engaged to Dev(Varun Bandola)
who is madly in love with Pammi (Sangeeta Ghosh), a London-based
NRI girl. “It’s a nice role again of a very nice girl
who is forced to become vindictive after her engagement breaks,”
she adds.
The bubbly
young actress who started her career with Tracinema’s Labellas
and later did Tara, Umeed, Trikaal, Jee Sahab, Nazdikiyan Abhimaan,
Zanjeerein has anchored Eno Filmi Masala, Say Cheese and Let’s
Yahoo. She’s also acted in stand-off episodes of Saturday Suspense,
Rishtey and X Zone. “Though I don’t find much difference
in me as far as acting goes because I am working with the same interest,
involvement, zeal and enthusiasm, people feel I have improved a
lot,” says Sweta adding that she has never found acting a difficult
job. “I think it’s there in me. I can do any role and
so far I have done a variety of roles and different genres of serials.”
Happy and chirpy
she likes to chat a lot. “When I am talking I feel very happy,”
she grins. But this confident and tough persona is a real softie
at heart and gets hurts easily. Which is why she doesn’t like
the filmi people. “They are pseudos and very pretentious. They
are not real friends. They are nice on the face but backbite,”
regrets Sweta who loves beaches and sipping drinks on a silent beach.
She also loves eating junk food and sea food the most. Though she
has not fallen in love so far she has had several crushes.
Not blunt but
honest Sweta says she has undergone a lot of change. “Earlier
I used to talk a lot and put my foot in my mouth. But now it takes
me a lot of effort to open up and like people,” she confesses.
She wants to stay in television acting arena as long as she enjoys
the experience. “The day I get bored I will quit acting and
go behind the camera because I don’t want to waste the experience
I have gained,” she says with finality.
—A.
L. CHOUGULE
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