"TV Shows Today Are Very Regressive", Says "Khichdi" Fame Supriya Pathak

The popular actress of Indian daily soaps who is well known for her super hit comedy character Hansa Parekh in the serial Khichdi and Neelu Nanavati in Ek Mahal ho Sapno ka, legendary actress Supriya Pathak feels that working in the television industry today doesn’t interest her as the serials are regressive and too long.

Supriya Pathak said, “The shows being made nowadays are very similar, very regressive. We are talking about the type of ’60s, ’70s kind of films, and similar stories are being shown on TV today. Only rehashed and glossy. It does not interest me”.

“I also find it problematic that the shows are so long that they keep going on and on. They are unnecessarily stretched. All the work that I have done is the type I would want to watch. If I can’t watch it myself how can I expect people to watch it,” the actor added.

Supriya had worked in the serial Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka, which went on for 1,000 episodes but still Pathak believes the show had its way of storytelling, which invested time on its characters and unlike today wasn’t “pulling anything” in the name of a story.

“It was good storytelling, and it was also a new format that we were making so many episodes. But Aatish JI (Kapadia) kept to a storyline, we were just not pulling things. “There were so many characters, and he spent time in telling every character’s story and bringing every character to its end was well-thought. I think the episode’s length was justified by its storyline,” Supriya Pathak said.

Talking about the new medium of web series, the 58-year-old actor said while it was an interesting format, the productions were becoming repetitive.

“Everyone is making the same kind of shows, about the underworld and things like that. So I am hoping somebody breaks this trend, else we will again enter the same grind,” she said.

Known for her films including Bazaar, Mirch Masala, and Kalyug during the parallel cinema movement, Supriya Pathak believes it is the content that will always interest the audience and not the big names associated with a film.

“What is more important today for the audience is to have different kinds of content. They like variety, they like different kinds of stories, different kinds of entertainment. There are so many platforms now, I think there is going to be more necessity for different kinds of stories."

“In our time it was majorly only one-thing cinema and then there was what you may call the parallel cinema. It was the only other way of telling stories. Now it’s not like that. Today there are all kinds of platforms, so many different ways of telling stories,” Supriya said.

The veteran theatre, TV and Bollywood actor will be performing at the third edition of Delhi Theatre Festival, organized by Alchemist Live.

Pathak, along with actor and husband Pankaj Kapur, will act in the opening play Dreamz Sehar at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi on August 30. Talking about Kapur, as a partner and co-actor, Pathak credited him, as “one of the best actors the world has ever seen”, behind all that she has learned about acting.

At the age of 22, Supriya Pathak married the son of her mother's friend. However, they separated within a year. In 1986, she met current husband, Pankaj Kapoor while filming Sagar Sarhadi's Agla Mausam, which was never released.

Pankaj Kapoor was previously married to Kathak danseuse and actor, Neelima Azeem, with whom he has a son, the actor, Shahid Kapoor. After two years of courtship, they tied the knot in 1988, and are now parents to a daughter and a son.

Their daughter, Sarah made her debut in the movie Shaandaar.