The production house is at fault, says Amar Upadhyay

If the buzz is to be believed, Amar Upadhyay is taking undue advantage of his stardom on the sets of Saath Nibhana Sathiya. The actor, who shot to fame with his role as Mihir Virani in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, has been giving a tough time to the production house.

A source reveals, “The senior actor wasn’t exactly happy with the screen time given to his character, Dharam Suryavanshi. Many a times, the actor has had issues with the script and dialogues given to him. He often even refused to shoot, demanding changes. While this continued for some time, the actor’s resentment increased with each passing day. It came to a point where he stopped reporting to the sets. The matter was resolved only after the producer accepted the actor’s condition to shoot for only 15 days in a month.”

The source adds, “The producer may have conceded to the actor’s demand because Dharam’s character is very popular, but the show is incurring losses since the actor allotted just 15 days to shoot. The crew is under lot of pressure to finish the actor’s portions on priority. His co-actors too are forced to adjust their dates accordingly. The production house is having a tough time keeping up with his demands. Everyone is suffering to keep him happy.”

However, when we contacted Amar, he had a different story to narrate. An upset Amar said, “I had signed an exclusivity contract with them of 25 days when I came on board, simply because I wanted to focus completely on this show. In the last ten months, they have only utilised 150 days  and wasted the remaining days. If they can’t use a senior actor well when they have an exclusivity contract with him, they are at fault, not me. They can’t just bind and block an actor and waste his time, so I decided to give them only 15 days to shoot. In fact, I doubt if they will even utilise these 15 days well.”

The actor further continues, “They are making it look like they have given me a break. I am not a newcomer and they cannot treat me like one. I have worked with 50 odd production houses and I never had any problem. I have had issues with certain scenes that belittled me. They were doing funny things with me, so when I put my foot down and told them this is not how it’s done, suddenly I am the one throwing my weight around. The least they can do is improve my track and deliver what was promised to me. ”

The actor believes the production house is at fault. He says, “Why do you think Vandana Pathak (who played Gaura) is not coming back? She wasn’t happy with her character either. I wasn’t even informed about the leaps. A lot of times, the action sequences are shot without having trained fighters, or an action-director supervising the sequence. If they are not able to manage my dates and other actors’ dates well, it’s their problem, not mine. How can I be blamed for everything?”