Mumbai: Big Boss, the Indian version of Channel 4's reality show Big Brother, is whipping up similar spice - a catfight between the leading ladies.
Rupali Ganguly, who had played the "cry baby" in the Sony TV show, has accused co-star Kashmera Shah, who played the "mean woman", of being "bossy and judgmental".
Rupali, who recently started shooting her first serial after Bigg Boss, was appalled by Kashmera's suggestion that she played the 'cry baby' on the show.
"Who is she to talk about what I was doing there? I can't talk for others she has named in her interview. But speaking for myself, every tear that I shed on Bigg Boss was genuine. I came out of the experience wounded and cringing. And if I hadn't been eliminated, I'd have probably jumped the wall and fled."
In a recent interview about her Bigg Boss housemates, Kashmera said "Rupali should have been herself... the fact that she would cover up all her faults by crying was also very frustrating."
To compound her woes, Rupali came out of the show to find her father, renowned director Anil Ganguly, seriously ill. "From then on, it has been a whirlwind of hospitals, anxieties and prayers. Fortunately, my father is out of danger. And I'm back to work. My father is not cut out to be part of Bollywood's rat race, or to deal with the star system. He now helps me with the ad agency that I own."
She no longer cries at the drop of a hat like she used to in Sony TV's reality show Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Channel 4's Big Brother. Actress Rupali Ganguly, the 'cry baby' in the serial, has grown up.
"But you've to understand that I had never been away from home, always a papa's pet. Suddenly, I was thrown among all these people like Kashmera and Rakhi who were far more in-charge, women of the world. I had no choice, but to deal with the situations in the best way possible. And if tears were the solution, it had to be," Rupali explains.
Looks like Rupali has grown up. She does not cry as she used to in Bigg Boss. "You have to understand that I have never been away from home and has always been a papa's pet. Suddenly, I was thrown among these people like Kashmera and Rakhi Sawant in the reality show, who were more in-charge, women of the world."
She started shooting for a new serial "Ek Packet Ummeed" this week. "It's something new for me from the same people, who produced my last serial 'Sarabhai versus Sarabhai'. Actually, I lost a lot of time because I was waiting for another season of Sarabhai to start. But I'm glad I'm doing 'Ek Packet Ummeed' with actors like Neena Kulkarni and Sulabha Deshpande. The whole idea of being an actor is to grow and make my parents proud."
Rupali's father was livid when she played the "Bad Woman" in the medical saga "Sanjeevani". "To him, my role of the scheming Simran was that of an out-and-out vamp, a cross between what Bindu and Padma Khanna were. It was only later when people told him they liked me in the serial that he forgave me."
But Ganguly has realised she isn't cut out for being catty in soaps or on a reality show. "In 'Ek Packet Ummeed', I play a very positive character. It's about a family of strangers, people who stay together in a hostile city. The tagline 'Bin Rishton Ke Rishte' says it all."
Tell her she is the Shabana Azmi of the small screen and Rupali is delighted. "I've been told that I resemble her. I saw her at a play and she was smiling at me. I almost burst into tears. But I had the presence of mind to say hello to Shabana."
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