Rohit Roy on doing television reboots, playing Vardhan in Sanjivani and working with brother Rohit Roy.

Actor Rohit Roy is happy that his Vardhan is getting the audience’s love despite him playing a negative character in Sanjivani.

In an exclusive chat with indianexpress.com, Rohit shared how he has always opted for unique concepts and why there is no competition at home with big brother Ronit Roy.

Here are excerpts from the conversation:

Q. Sanjivani, a reboot of the 2002 show, has been received well. What is your take on reboots?

Television rebooting is completely different from film rebooting. In a film, the characters and storyline are in the same genre, while when you reboot a TV show like Sanjivani, the entire storyline is different. The characters are brand new, the location is brand new. You have a Vardhan who was not there in the first one. I am just grateful that God gave me this role for my TV comeback. A lot of people had been asking me why I am not doing television. I cannot do stuff which I have already done, at least on TV where I have done a fair amount of good work. I want to do something new. People are going crazy about Vardhan. They have actually written how much they hate him. That brings me to the thing that I need to do something unique and new. If I am bored of it myself, how can I entertain the audience. I realised it even after I did Kaabil, how much sometimes your character needs to be hated to get the love.

Q. But how do you see your entire journey so far? You have done TV, films and even theatre.

With all humility, I think I have done competent work all these years, but I have never considered myself a good actor. (laughs)

Any actor wants to be part of something which is a first, unique or rare to come by. I did LOC because there are very few war films being made. I ended up doing Swabhimaan which was the first daily soap of India. I played the villain for the first time in Kaabil. Sometimes you do it by design, sometimes you do it by acting. I am glad that I became a part of this play, Ovee, which is the first horror play of India because this is something challenging for an actor. And as it is this genre is quite popular in India. We see supernatural shows get the highest rating on TV. So, it was a great idea to give it a try.

Q. What pulled you towards the stage this time?

Films and TV is a child’s play as compared to theatre. If you realise not many actors have forayed into theatre. Whatever I have done on TV or films stops when I enter theatre.

Live audience is the basic reason why any actor does theatre. Reaction of the live audience then and there with no scope of retakes and you are there for two hours and engaging them. In films, we have so much time to put background music, special effects, put all sorts of filters, camera movements. In theatre, you have to coordinate with not only other actors but also with special effects, sound and all. I have to say the exact line because that’s the cue for the other actors to enter or for the technician to change the light. That becomes a challenge.

Q. Having Ronit as your brother, is there any sort of competition at home too?

He is more like my dad! He has never been my brother. In fact, he worries more for me than I worry for myself. He constantly calls me, tells me to do this and do that. There’s no competition on those lines. I worry for him and he worries for me, and that’s the relationship we have always had. People took so many years to cast us together in a film (Kaabil). There was Sarkar on Zee TV earlier, but now people are thinking of casting us together in films. I am waiting for that to happen.

Credits: indianexpress