"I sleep with no baggage and get up fresh."- Manish Goel

However, when Manish Goel once popular for his roles in Kasautii Zindagii Kay, Bhabhi, Saara Aakash amongst many others, didn't get his kind of shows, he patiently waited for two years, busied himself in a new profession and now is set to start afresh with a positive attitude with his latest role in the maha movie - Hum Ne Li Hai… Shapath on Life OK. 

In this chat with TellyBuzz, Manish reveals all about the hardships he faced, how he got over those difficult days and what he expects in the future.

After two years I will be seen on Television again –

The makers of Hum ne Li hai Shapath decided to produce this film. It's a two hour telefilm on the lines of Avengers. It is an action genre with a super hero and a super villain who has a team of flying man, light man, fire man, flash man, etc. and all these are real, not animated.

My character is of a super villain –

I play a super villain, Vikram who is someone with a lot of power. The fun part is that despite being a villain he is entertaining too. I get to play a lot with the character – I dance, act like a psychopath, freeze and kill people. So, apart from playing a super villain I also am a psychotic character very similar to the Joker in Batman. The entry and exit of my character is shot very stylishly with lots of choreography since he is also a good dancer. He sings before he kills and dances when he is in jail too.

My kids are happy that I am doing this –

I am doing this for my 9 year old son Aryaveer who is most excited to see it because he wants to see power and even my 4 year old daughter Maliha is excited too. The target audience for this films too is kids since we have seen that TRPs increase when kids like something.

Initially, I was a bit skeptical about taking this up since it was after a long time that I was coming back. However, I realised that my character of a super villain was not a forced one, so I got everything clarified. They explained the character to me and when I shot on the first day, for the first scene, my first call was to my wife Poonam telling her how excited I was about taking a right decision.

It was two years since I was last seen on Television –

The last thing I hosted on Television was Mahayatra – Rishton ka safar on Star Plus and the latest is the episodic roles I have done for Adalat on Sony TV. Then there was a wave when programming on TV changed. Offers did come in but I wanted to take up something which was challenging enough. I've an inner circle of people with whom I connect to in this industry. I called them and told them that I want to comeback in a good role. Everyone was encouraging but nothing concrete materialized. My last show was Welcome Baazi Mehmaan Nawaazi ki.

To keep myself busy I started an events management company –

Getting up every morning, trying to get work and then getting rejected is not easy. I kept myself busy and distracted from all this with starting my own events company. From conceptualizing small events we became wedding planners too. I used to actively participate in all the assignments right from hosting shows and performing at these events. At one such famous wedding which was of producer Rashmi Sharma, people from the TV industry saw me directing the entire show and were surprised to see me doing all the running around. Producers like Rajan Shahi, Pintoo Guha, Vivek Behl saw me and appreciated my efforts and that was a big encouragement for me. Keeping yourself busy if you are not getting what you want to do was my mantra.

I don't think those two years in my life were wasted. In fact, they have taught me a lot and I have learned the most in my life. At the end I think nothing is bigger than your family. My biggest pillar of strength is my wife Poonam (Poonam Narula Goel) and my mom. Poonam just wants to be a mother and trusts me totally to take care of the family. I feel God had given me a break to understand all these other aspects of life, to accept it, whether it is failures or problems. I took it all I my stride and decided to move on in life. Every day I used to believe that something good will happen.

I sleep with no baggage and get up fresh. I have come to know through these bad times as to who my friend is and who is not? I have realized that I am standing alone and fighting without an inch of support from anyone other than my family.

I bagged this role because of my positive attitude –

I had waited for two years to do something good and finally this offer came to me – they were looking at someone with a good physique. The good thing is that even when I was not doing any work on TV, I continued with my fitness regime which is helping me now. I do yoga every morning for 2 -3 times a week, go to the gym 3 times a week and also learned and practiced Taekwondo and have won a blue belt for it.

I have a feeling that this will lead to something big –

People have already noticed me so this is looking challenging and even while performing I felt that this will be big. I have shot a new portfolio of pictures and feel things are looking up again in my acting career. Hard work always pays and I am again doing action. I have tried for films too but things didn't work and many things have changed these days. My thought was – you have to believe in yourself. Even a single word of confidence pushes you. I am a very positive person and am just waiting for the release of my film on 21^st July.

Seema Khot Mattoo