TOI: TV baddies strike back-Sultan/AR

They are mean, they are manipulative and they make the protagonists (and TRPs) dance to their tunes. Here is a lowdown on some baddies who have returned in the current tracks of their daily soaps after they had been temporarily defeated by the protagonists, to spice up the proceedings some more. After all, what's better than having negative characters make the lives of the lead couple miserable!
Amrapali Gupta Who: Tanveer in Qubool HaiShe was evil at its worst. From pushing the female protagonist off a cliff, to mixing acid in her mehndi, burying her alive in wall (ala Anarkali), staging a fake consummation scene with the hero, to attempting to burn the heroine, Tanveer left no stone unturned to get hold of her childhood love Jammy (Asad Ahmed Khan, played by Karan Singh Grover) and make Zoya's (played by Surbhi Jyoti) life a tearjerking story. But as fate had it, poor stone-eyed Billo Rani's devious plot was discovered and she was thrown out of the house. Just when you thought she was going to be eased out of the show, there's bad news. On the Eid special of the show, Tannu darling will make astriking comeback gyrating to Dil Mera Muft Ka to unleash her reign of terror again!

Supriya Kumari Who: Bharti in Sanskaar Dharohar Apnon Ki You don't blame this one for turning bad. Bharti (played by Supriya Kumari),was literally jilted at the altar after the male lead chose someone else. And they say, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. So the once coy girl has come back to level scores and get even. For starters, she's already manipulated the situation in her favour and has got the second lead Ankit (played by a pouty Avinash Mukherjee) to get engaged to him. Now she's set to ruin the family by stealing their money and making them lose face. Yawn!

Aanchal Khurrana Who: Charu in Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke After being the queen of abuses on a reality show, Aanchal Khurrana seems to be reveling in her new mean act in a daily soap. As the self-centred Charu who sends her husband and in-laws to jail on false charges, to burning her own hands to create sympathy, she's done it all. After a brief cooling period, the wily jailbird is now free. And no prizes for guessing what she's doing since her return. Well, she's trying to kill the female protagonist Gunjan (Roopal Tyagi), so that she can win back her ex-husband.

Avinesh Rekhi Who: Sultan in Madhubala Ek Ishq Ek Junoon In a typical filmi sequence involving loads of high voltage drama, Sultan ( Avinesh Rekhi) who's supposedly a notorious gangster (without much work) had a heroic fall to death from a cliff which sent the male lead RK (Vivian Dsena) to jail. In a predictable twist in the storyline, Sullu bhai has returned from the dead in a meaner and blacker avatar (with the same deadpan expression) and is terrorising the former fiesty heroine turned weeping willow Madhubala (Dhrashti Dhami) to divorce her husband. Really? Not even in a make-belief world can viewers be expected to suffer the ordeal of watching an abusive gangster lusting over a happily married girl for too long! Hopefully the 'Right Kameena' superstar RK will save the day and this time send Sultan packing for good.