EXCLUSIVE: Abhinav Shukla recalls the time when he scared his Silsila co-star Drashti Dhami of being his wife

Abhinav Shukla gets candid about his show Silsila, his character and reuniting with Drashti Dhami after Geet Hui Sabse Parayi.

By Bhavna Agarwal

Updated on Jun 25, 2018 | 08:26 AM IST | 1.1M

Silsila co-stars Drashti Dhami and Abhinav Shukla earlier shared screen space in a hit show Geet Hui Sabse Parayi wherein the two played the role of a husband and wife. 8 years down the line the two have reunited for another show Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka wherein they essay the role of a married couple again. Abhinav [Rajdeep Thakur] plays an abusive husband to Drashti [Nandini Thakur] in the show and has already left us impressed with his acting chops. The menacing shades he brings into Rajdeep has garnered him several praises. Besides them, the show also stars Shakti Arora and Aditi Sharma.

Before Abhinav left for his real and dreamy wedding with the girlfriend and now wife Rubina Dilaik, we got in a quick chat with him regarding his show, his character and his camaraderie with co-stars.

Speaking about his character Rajdeep, Abhinav said, "I am playing a guy from a small town who is ambitious and wants to make it big in the city of Mumbai. His agenda in life is all about money and fame. For him, his wife is not as important as his ambition and sometimes becomes a mean to meet the ends. Also, it makes him a control freak. He controls her, tells her what to wear and contrary to what people might think, he actually asks her to wear something modern, revealing clothes. He is image conscious, he wants her to be prim and proper. I feel that there are a lot of Rajdeep's out there. I personally don't like them but we are showing something which is relatable."

But given the greyer shade to the character, do you sometimes as a human being feel frustrated playing it? "If you ask me, we actors have this amazing ability to detach ourselves from an emotion and just do it for the camera," Abhinav added, "We do it all the time, at times we do feel it, but the majority of the time, it is us faking an emotion for the camera. We do a lot of scenes like say proposing a girl, but you know it is done technically, you don't feel anything. But sometimes I feel bad, maybe when my parents see me play this character and shouting at a girl, they might feel weird. But that's okay."

How does Rubina react to him playing such a ruthless, self-centred and misogynist character? "I think she is a thorough professional. She knows what we do so that won't be a problem with her. But people who see the show and follow it religiously, the hardcore TV audience, they will surely form [negative] opinions (laughs)."

Then what made him say yes to the show? "Initially, I had declined the role but then I was convinced that there is a lot to perform in it. I personally felt that I have played a lot of roles where I felt I am restricted by the script, by the space I have been given and here I couldn't see a lot of restriction. I am enjoying it."

Does Abhinav resonate with any trait of Rajdeep's? To this, the actor said, "I don't relate to anything. I am not an ambitious guy, I have a very laidback attitude, money for me is less important than self-respect and ideals. For Rajdeep it is different but for me, people can call me foolish for this but for Abhinav, there is honesty, idealism involved. My brother calls me penny wise pound foolish."

On reuniting with Drashti after Geet, Abhinav shared an interesting anecdote. He laughed remembering the time he had scared Drashti off whilst shooting for a marriage sequence with her during their first show.

He recalled, "There was a very interesting incident when we were shooting for Geet. There was a scene where Drashti and I got married. There was a scene of saat phera and sindoor, so after the scene was done, I went to Drashti and told very seriously that I have spoken to my mother and she told me very clearly, 'beta jisese saath saat phere aur sindoor lagaya who teri wife ban gayi.' I told her that now you see what you are going to do because you are my wife now. She was scared to T. And then, later on, we told her we were kidding. We had a lot of funny incidents."

Regarding his camaraderie with Shakti Arora and Aditi Sharma, Abhinav said, "Shakti is a popular guy. When I met him, I felt that he is a very regular guy and very grounded. And with Aditi, I had seen her work in a Punjab film and we kept discussing on how she did a particular scene."

Abhinav got married to Rubina on June 21, 2018, in Shimla.