It is never too late to start. Pavitra Rishta the almost never ending saga on Zee TV has added a character of Naren, which is played by Karan Mehra, yet another actor from Delhi on the small screen. Pavitra Rishta has completed one thousand episodes. In fact, the joke on the television circuit is that you go around the town and you are unlikely to come across an actor who has not worked at some stage in Pavitra Rishta . Karan is merely the latest.
Yet, it almost did not come about. Long ago, Karan had auditioned for the role of Manav but was not selected. Then came a period when Mehra did sundry roles in other serials like Shannon Ki Shaadi and Remix , etc. Yet, he was not able to carve out his own identity and kept pursuing the producer Ekta Kapoor for some role in Pavitra Rishta . Now his effort has borne fruit. “I used to go there for auditions and in fact I auditioned for the role of Manav but then luck was not on my side and I was rejected for it but now I am selected by the same team for playing the role of Naren. I will be playing the lead opposite Ankita Lokhande.” The show has recently taken a 20 years leap.
“I became an actor by chance as one of my friends was going to Mumbai for an audition and I just accompanied him. There I was also asked for audition. I passed the test as an actor but was considered too young for that particular role. However, some months later I got a call from the same channel for another show.”
Now, in Pavitra Rishta he is playing the role of a big businessman who suffers from a mental ailment known as bipolar which may manifest itself in occasional fits. “I got sometime to study the character. I read a lot and searched YouTube and even met a doctor to know much the behaviour of such patients. I was a little nervous but then the production team came to my help telling me not to go so deeply in that illness and I should concentrate on the drama. My scenes are very well written and luckily I found that people here are as enthusiastic as they were in the beginning five years back.”
