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Instead in walks Asha Parekh, looking very traditional and elegant in a blue silk bandini saree, accompanied by her father and long-time friend Shammi. The pundit looks visibly relieved as more people start trickling in. There is Renuka Shahane, Uttara Baokar and some more familiar faces of the small screen. It is the muhurat of Asha Parekh’s new teleserial Kora Kagaz and she has decided on an auspicious beginning. So the havan and the pundit.The pundit is definitely the star of the moment as he chants shlokas, performs various

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rites and makeseveryone do his bidding. The havan goes on for what seems like an interminable period. Mercifully, the studio is air-conditioned and you neither feel the heat nor the smoke.Havan over, the prasad is distributed and lunch is wrapped up before everyone from unit hands to the artistes set about their respective chores. Renuka disappears into her make-up room, so does Anil Dhawan. Salil Ankola strides in, looking ruffled and slightly confused. He heads straight to where Asha is sitting and apologises profusely for coming in late. “I had a night shoot and reached home at seven in the morning,” he explains. However, he must have had a good rest because he looks surprisingly fresh for someone who walks in home at 7am. “I am getting used to the hectic, irregular work hours. The work is fun and I am enjoying it,” he tells you with a disarming grin. He is also all smiles about his role in Kora Kagaz. “I play a happy-go-lucky, bubbly guy and I must say it is a refreshing change after Nafrat. The audience is surely going to like me,” he enthuses. However, Salil doesn’t hesitate to confess his initial fear of acting. “As a kid, I was thrown out of a school play once and never dared to step on the stage after that. So acting was the last career option I could have thought of,” he admits. Salil gives all credit to his wife who persuaded him to try out acting after an injury resulted in the then temporary and now permanent retirement from professional cricket. Now that the acting bug has bit him, he wants to graduate to films. “I have been getting offers but I am waiting for the right one to come by.” Just then Uttara Baokar, looking ethnic in a blue and white Gurjari print salwar-kameez, comes by. The lady is settled in Pune and commutes to Mumbai when her work demands her presence here. That’s the reason one gets to meet the talented actress rarely in Mumbai. “I am very choosy about the kind of work I take up on television and so I don’t have far too many asignments,” she confesses candidly. Uttara plays Renuka Shahane’s mother-in-law in the serial. “A typical, conservative woman, devoted to my family. The sort of woman who believes that men have and should have all the privileges. I don’t believe in women’s rights. The character is in total contrast to the type of person I am. It is very challenging,” she elaborates. Anil Dhawan plays Uttara’s husband in the serial and he seems quite tickled at the thought of working under Asha Parekh’s direction. “I have been a great fan of hers. When I joined the industry in the ’70s she was doing her last film as a heroine, Heera. I would hop over to wherever she would be shooting and gawk at her,” he confesses still-starry-eyed. Apart from his fascination for Asha, Anil was also lured by the fact that Kora Kogaz was a family drama. “I love doing family dramas. If you observe, the themes of so many family dramas are based on the films of yesteryears. They are good entertainment and any day better than the buffoonery that goes on in the name of comedy on television,” he asserts stopping abruptly as Asha fits into his line of vision. A unit hand tells him it is time to dress up for the shot and Anil scampers off like an obedient child. And we take advantage of the opportunity to do a quick interview with Asha Parekh. Excerpts: ASHA PAREKH This is your fourth serial as a producer-director, right? No, this is my fifth serial. I produced a Gujarati serial first. Then Palaash Ke Phool, Baje Payal, Dal Mein Kala and now Kora Kagaz. Except for Dal Mein Kala, I have also directed all these serials.