New Delhi: Juhi Parmar, well-known TV actor who has worked in a variety of TV shows, opened up about working in daily soaps in early days. In a recent interaction, the 'Yeh Meri Family Season 2' actor said that working in TV in the early days on the show 'Kumkum' could be quite intense. Juhi shared that she would sometimes work 30-hours non-stop as the pressure to deliver episodes on time was quite intense. Juhi also added that she does not regret doing so as this was the norm of the time.
In an interaction with TV Times, Juhi shared that their team would jokingly call the set "Mogambo’s den as there was a fixed time to come in, but no fixed time to leave.” She said, “We used to work 30 hours non-stop. There were so many days when people used to pack up, leave, come back the next day and I would still be shooting. People would change, the unit would change, but I would be working round the clock. There was no time limit and the pressure was too much.”
Adding that it was a fun of a different kind, Juhi added, "We did it then but now I wonder how we did it." In the early 2000s, Juhi shared, TV shows were a rage and even producers did not know how to handle it, how much to do and thus, so many episodes went on in a week that it led to long working hours.
"That’s the nature of television. It is demanding. You have to deliver,” she said and added that if such working hours don’t work for someone, one should not work in the TV industry. “If it’s not workable for you, then you shouldn’t do it. That’s the requirement of this medium. So you should be mentally prepared to do it."
Juhi also added that TV as a medium is quite 'demanding' because of the 'need' to watch. "If we don’t shoot so much, we won’t be able to deliver,” the actor said.
The actor also thanked the TV industry for who she is. "I’m not naming anybody here or quoting anybody, I am talking about just myself here that in my opinion, I totally respect television. I feel that hats off to the television industry to be able to pull off work like this with such deadlines, with no preparation, having a sword on their head all the time and still deliver such great work,” she said.
Earlier, actor Radhika Madan had spoken about the long working hours on TV and the last minute calls which did not allow actors to prepare for their roles. Radhika's statements were not taken kindly by many in the industry who refuted the case.