I was on the wrong in my tiff with Ekta – Chetan Hansraj
Chetan Hansraj who has returned to the Balaji camp with Star Plus historical Chandra Nandni is a changed man. He had a bad fall out with producer Ekta Kapor during his Jodha Akbar (Zee TV) stint back in 20015 over differences regarding his character. But now he says it was all his fault “I have worked with her for 12 years. Whatever happened in Jodha Akbar was predominantly my fault. I realized it after 6/7 months, for at first I was angry. Later when I calmed down, it dawned on me that whatever I am in this industry is due to her, and life is all about realizations right. At that time when I was pondering about what and why, Balaji again reached out to me. I admitted to Ekta that I had made a mistake and guess when time is not right things do go south. For me 2015-16 have been weird years, whatever could go wrong did go wrong. I also went through personal hell due to a hearing illness. And Ekta graciously just said forget it and let’s move on. Balaji has always been family to me & its like homecoming for me. It’s like leaving your home and going out into the wilderness and then realizing how much you miss home”
Chetan attributes this changes to Buddhism, “It made many things clear to me. There will always be fights at home, but then you cannot severe relationships right. This was also God’s way of giving me a tight slap for taking things for granted. It made me realize that I am 42 and I need to start enjoying life and come out of that weird zone. I am now working to build a nice future .”
Chetan who earlier had done bit roles in films has now come to the conclusion that TV industry is way huge than Bollywood. “TV actors must come out of self deprecating zone of looking up to films. Most TV actors earn more money then film actors (leaving out the A List stars). Tell me something, how many films in a year actually succeed. You work for two years for a film project and there is no guarantee it will become a hit. We TV actors on the other hand work in dailies and the amount of per day we make is not funny. Most big film actors are also making a beeline to TV any way .”
Having said that he is open to doing interesting films be it historical. “But I don’t want to become a villain who only gets thrashed. I am not desperate for films either for doing a TV historical already gives me that huge scale.”
In closing Chetan who has worked with Rajat Tokas in shows like Dharti Ka Veer Yodha – Prithviraj Chauhan, Jodha Akbar and Chandra Nandni, accepts that the actor might have attitude issues. “He is a hard working boy doing a good job. We are always pitted against each other. It is all about maturity I guess, he is a young 25 year old. Even in my youth I would think no end of myself. When you grown up you mature. I have seen him as a 15 year old & he seems to be getting wiser”.