‘Hum toh chale the dost bankar jane kaha, Dil Mil Gye’, is the song that we all whisper when we hear about Karan Singh Grover, Jennifer Winget, Karan Wahi and everyone related to the show. But the one person that comes to our mind is Shilpa now Ohanna Shivananda, who left us is a question mark when she suddenly quit the show. She was so perfect as Dr Ridhima and now, she has answers to all our question. As per SpotboyE, here are all the answers.
Dill Mill Gayye has completed 12 years. How does it feel? It feels very good and the fact that even after 12 years people still talk so much about the show amazes me. It’s very rare that after so many years of any show going off air, people still remember and discuss about it. When I was signing for Dr Ridhima’s character which was a very cute kind of a role, I seriously had no expectations that it will become so popular and it would turn as the second name for me during those days. Today also, me and my family talk about it.
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How did this offer come to you? Well, I was doing some other show with Star One channel at that point of time and Dill Mill Gayye was not even in the picture. But, due to some approval issues that show apparently got scrapped. Then, they approached me for this one. So when they asked me to do this show, I was in two minds as to should I take it up or not.
Why so? That time, I was doing a lot of South movies and advertisements which were going extremely smooth and favouring me in all senses. This was a totally different medium for me. Also, doing TV is like a big commitment. Not only me, but all the other actors involved in the show that time didn’t think much about it. It was like, yeah they are coming with a decent story-line in an average budget. It was not like a very high budget show with grand sets and all. But the kind of success it received after it was aired, I think everyone was pleasantly surprised.
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Can you recall your first shot for the show? Yes it’s very much fresh in my mind. It was a promo shoot where they were showing differences in natures of me and my onscreen sister Dr. Anjali (Sunaina Gulia); so the elder one is strong-headed, blunt and the younger one is calm, sober with our father which was played by Mohnish Bahl.
The show was doing extremely well and even your character was being loved by the audience. Then, what made you quit the show in between (2008)? Basically, I had a fight with the executive producer on set. We were shooting a dance sequence and I was performing on the song ‘Zara Zara Touch Touch Me’ that time. I was drenched in wet clothes; there were not many ACs on sets but there were too many people. The executive producer suddenly came to me and said, ‘You need to vacate your room immediately because other rooms are very small and we are planning to accommodate someone else here’. It was a total shock for an artiste like me. They wanted to throw me out of my room which I definitely didn’t want to happen. It was a very irritating moment for me as that time we used to shoot for 13-14 long hours. That day, I had come in the morning and at that time I was shooting the whole sequence around 11 in the night. I got really pissed off and I seriously didn’t want to work with that man. Since the makers refused to get rid of him, I decided to walk out.
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What kept you quiet for so long as no one knows the real reason of you quitting? I didn’t speak much to the media at that time because in case after me quitting the show, the serial gets flopped then they would catch hold of me as to ‘why did you disclose all of these things which has gone negatively for us’. But today, the show is off-air and whatever happened that time is history, so I don’t mind talking about it. Also, even after me leaving the show, I wanted it to do well. I am a true believer of destiny and there are some things you can’t change.
Are you in touch with any of your co-stars? Not really, as I am not a very social person. My kind of thinking is very different and I am not very comfortable with chit-chatting, gossiping and all. I feel very few are like this in the industry. See, you want to discuss something which you are interested in and my kind of interesting things don’t interest others. But yes, I would also accept that all my co-stars were really very nice and I still remember I had a great time with them. Especially with Sunaina Gulia (Dr.Anjali) and Drashti Dhami ( Dr.Muskaan), both were very sweet to me; also Ayaz Khan was a great guy. I knew him from before the show, so I had a tuning with him as well.
Well, we wish to see the actress on air soon.