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Popular actress Charu Asopa, known for her roles on television shows, such as Diya Aur Baati Hum, Mere Angne Mein and Kaisa Hai Yeh Rishta Anjana, chats to us about her journey in the industry. She also touches on being a vlogger, and shares insights into the challenges one faces when balancing personal and professional commitments when working on a daily soap.
With a career spanning over a decade, is there a role which has been the most challenging or memorable for you in your acting career so far?
In my career so far, the most challenging role for me was Roma Reddy in Diya Aur Baati Hum. In the beginning Roma was an IPS cadet and her training was going on and we did the stunts for real. Later on, it got more challenging because I found out that Roma is a terrorist, and right from an innocent and chirpy character, I had to play a terrorist. It was a whole change over, I had to do things like jumping from mountains and do different types of stunts, and I got the chance to do a lot of new things. Physically it was quite challenging because of the many stunts so therefore I think Diya Aur Baati Hum’s Roma Reddy was my most challenging role so far.
You have done a nice mix of genres in your career like family drama, history, and mythology. Do you have a favourite genre or a type of role that you enjoy playing the most?
So I love to do comedy and although it’s quite difficult because your timing matters a lot, everyone does normal family dramas but comedy is something that I really like to do. I did a show called Comedy Class and it was really fun because you don’t even know how the time flies on the set, it was so much fun to do a comedy show.
Negative roles often evoke strong reactions from viewers. How do you handle both positive and negative feedback from audiences regarding your character portrayals?
In my career, I have done mostly negative roles. When I was doing a negative role for the first time, my director said that, “do you know why you’re playing a negative role, it’s because you have the most innocent face and people will find it unexpected and they enjoy such unexpected twists.” So when an innocent face does a negative role, it becomes very interesting for people and you do get a lot of feedback. People do not like you, and initially I used to get demotivated that people are saying such bad things but once my director told me that if people are saying such things then you are doing a great job and if people are saying bad things for a negative role then it’s a compliment.
About the challenge of disconnecting from negative characters, Charu noted the experience of playing Preeti in the iconic ‘Mere Angne Mein.’
So when I was doing Mere Angne Mein and the whole journey of Preeti whereby Preeti was an innocent girl and scared, and slowly she became so negative that it was a bit difficult to come out of, because she was negative to a great extent, and when I used to do the scenes I used to feel depressed because there were a lot of negative scenes. But then after that, the whole journey was of how a simple girl can become negative when wrong is done to her, and how she gains confidence and eventually treads on the right path again. So there was a whole journey. Preeti is a character which I actually lived because this character went on for a long time and it was unlike the typical daily soaps. Every day there was a change in the character. You never got the same type of scenes so when she became negative, the graph went up and then came down, so it was a whole journey which I lived and I think Preeti is a character which will always remain close to my heart.
Are there any specific goals or types of roles you hope to explore in future?
Yes, in future I would like to do some dance shows and a show where I can showcase my kathak skills because I am well versed in kathak, and in my 15 year career I never got to showcase my kathak so I would really love to play a role where I can show my kathak, maybe something like Umrao Jaan or Anarkali or something like that.
You also a have a YouTube channel, and family and parenting vlogs resonate deeply with viewers. So how does their feedback influence your content creation process?
People like to see me and Ziana and our journey of how we go ahead in life, and I show normal vlogs. I keep everything natural, I do not show off. I shoot things exactly how they happen in my life and make daily vlogs. I think people like the natural things shown and that’s why people watch my vlogs. So the more real you are, the more people will like it. And that’s what they get in my vlogs.
What are some of the challenges you face as a vlogger, and how do you overcome them?
There are challenges in every field. You get people’s opinions at every step. How you take these opinions is what matters. I don’t let the good comments get to my head nor do I let myself get depressed by the negative comments. There was a time where it mattered a lot to me but to the ones who give positive comments I say thank you, and to those who speak bad, I say thank you to them too, at least they are taking efforts to put their opinion in front of me. And sometimes I listen to their opinions and work on it when I feel they’re right and sometimes I think they make comments from a shallow point of view without understanding why I’m doing something in a certain way. For example if they say don’t do something, they don’t know why I’m doing it. So these things I have to just let go and people show a lot of love to me and Ziana. I think people who watch our vlogs love Ziana more than me and I’m really thankful to my YouTube family that they are subscribed to me and watch the vlogs. So thank you so much to all of them.
With both acting and vlogging, how do you manage to maintain a balance between professional commitments and personal life, especially as a parent?
So when I was doing a daily soap it was really difficult to manage the house and Ziana and work. It was quite difficult for me to handle things all at once but I did it for almost 11 months. Somehow I managed but yes it wasn’t easy. I won’t say it was difficult because I’m a single mother, because a mother is a mother. Whether single or living with family, a mother’s work never ends. So every mother works very hard and goes through difficulties to raise their children. The most difficult task is to raise a child. So whether working mother or single mother or having family’s support, it’s equally difficult. A mother’s work never ends.
That’s why I’ve taken a decision that I won’t do a daily soap very soon at least until Ziana grows up a little more. Maybe I can do weekend shows or OTT but not a daily soap because a daily soap is very demanding and demands a lot of hours from you. It requires full commitment because you don’t even know when your pack-up time will be, and if you have to rush home all of a sudden, you don’t know if you can go or not because you could end up with a telecast issue. So after considering all these factors I have decided that I won’t do a daily soap anytime soon. Maybe on OTT or ads I could do something. I am continuing with vlogs and handling my YouTube channel and I’ll do something with that but not a daily soap. Ziana needs me and a child grows up only once and I feel they need their mother most during that time. So from a mother’s perspective I’ve decided that we’ll continue to manage financially somehow but I won’t do a daily soap for now.
Finally, a message for all your fans worldwide
I would like to tell all my fans thank you so much for showing me so much of love. Whether it’s the characters I play or my youtube channel, you all have supported me and given me love. More than me, my child has received so much love, thank you for that and for always being there with me. I just want to say that when you have time, spend it with your loved ones and your child because you won’t regret the time you spend with them as they grow up only once. And from my experience I know that they need their mothers most during this time so if you’re a mother, spend as much time as possible with your child, everything else becomes secondary because these growing years do not come back, so spend time with your loved ones and be happy and thank you so much for always being there with me and supporting me.
It was delightful chatting to Charu Asopa! Wishing her and Ziana all the best!
