A comment like this coming from a senior actor is disheartening: Kanika Maheshwari
Actor Rohit Roy recently sparked a debate after calling television a “dustbin medium” on a podcast. He said, “Television is a dustbin medium. You watch it today, tomorrow you forget about it.” He also spoke about film actors having more “grace, dignity and style” compared to television actors.Actress Kanika Maheshwari, who has worked with Rohit in the past in the show Viraasat, says his choice of words was inappropriate. “You can criticise television as a medium, but calling it a dustbin medium is unnecessarily dismissive. Grace, dignity or class are qualities of individuals, not a privilege of cinema. Anyone can be graceful,” she says.“I would say television actors are more talented than any OTT platform actors because every day we are in front of the camera. We understand light, editing and everything else that goes behind and in front of the camera. It’s very disrespectful to use an adjective like this for television actors who actually give their sweat, blood and long working hours. I’ve worked so hard over the decades. Listening to something like this from a senior actor is disheartening,” she adds.
While she agrees that the quality of television content may have declined due to the pressure of producing entertainment every day, she questions calling the entire medium a “dustbin”. “Big actors and celebrities come on television to promote their films. Shah Rukh sir, Salman sir, Aamir sir and so many big people have come to promote their projects on TV. If it were a dustbin, they would never come there,” Kanika explains.Kanika also points to the success television gave the Roy brothers, saying, “The person who has actually worked on TV is saying this. I don’t remember Ronit in many films, but I remember him as Mr Bajaj from TV. I still remember Rohit from Swabhimaan when I was growing up.”His comments have since drawn reactions from several members of the industry and social media, including Devoleena Bhattacharjee and casting director Mukesh Chhabra, among others.
