"I love villainy but I am not a bad guy"

In the telly world, an actor is often times known by his or her character name. But the real dilemma is when the villains and vamps of small screen are actually believed to be selfsame in real life too! We have had instances for Shweta Kawatra (Pallavi in Kyunki) being chased by a woman with a chappal, Tasneem Sheikh (Mohini in Kyunki) rebuked by an old lady for her vindictive act on screen, mothers being vary to find their daughters in the vicinal of Shabir Alhluwalia (Rishi of Kahin To Hoga). Such is the impact of black characters!

Joining this list is a new bad guy on the TV circuit, Faizal Khan aka Paras, the negative lead in Betiyaan Apni Ya Paraya Dhan, also featuring in Solha Singaar and Bano Main Teri Dulhann. He had to deal with this slander as well, courtesy the roles he essays.

He narrates an incident from the sets, "A kid had come with his mom on my shoot and his mom asked him 'beta have you seen this actor on T.V.?' And the kid replied, 'Haan, but I don't like him, he is not a good guy.' We often laugh it off since we know it's just the character to blame and not really us. But honestly people are so intimidated with the role you play that they consider you to be a bad human being as well."

So why is he seen doing three negatives, does he really enjoy them that well? "I am completely inspired by Bollywood veteran, Pran. As a school kid, I have grown up watching him and have tried to emulate his character ever since. In fact, I was inspired by him a lot while enacting the rape scene with Divyanka Tripathi in Dulhann. They loved my kameenapan a lot; I enjoyed doing it as well, but when I saw the scene I hated myself, I felt disgusted. That is when I realised that villainy is for me."

However, that choice changed the way people reacted to him, "My acting has reflected on my personal life: Mostly I share my van with another actor and people randomly walk in and ask about others but do not interact with me. They don't wish me, families come on the sets but the kids and mothers don't want to click pictures with me. They just hate me; they maintain silent and ignore me because they don't want to be rude to me. It's clearly a case of 'he's not a good man for what he is doing to the family'".

The industry has yet not come up with a solution for this bias; the actor-character difference is blurred by the TV audience. Should such reactions be considered as a part of the deal or should we try to be more neutral towards serials and soaps?