I am single but not ready to mingle : Mishal Raheja

Mishal Raheja first got lucky when he got a chance to work with Anurag Basu in his much talked about show Love Story, which unfortunately did not translate into good ratings and it ended abruptly before time. Mishal soon became a heartthrob with the women. However, in no time he vanished from the small screen for three years till he recently came back with his character of Dutta Bhau in Laagi Tujhse Lagan . Mishal played a lively lover-boy Akash in Love Story . He was ready to do everything for his lady love while his character of Dutta is a tough guy… so how is the transformation for him? “In both the shows, I had to do loads of action. Dutta is very mature unlike my other character. The transformation is good; I had to work on this character for at least 10-15 days in advance. I tried to understand his mind-set; how he will think or react in a particular situation. So now I can do all scenes without any stress.” On preparing for his role of Dutta, he says, “I was given a brief about this character well in advance. They told me the story behind why Dutta became Dutta Bhau , so I had to learn his body language and had to modulate my voice. It took me almost a month to learn everything about this role. Action wasn’t difficult for me as I have been learning martial arts for the past 12 years. I have a personal trainer too. As for the Marathi dialect, I have been living here for ages, I studied Marathi in school so it is not difficult for me to use it in the show.” Mishal says his character had many shades and that’s what appealed to him. “Dutta is not a gangster, he is a nice human being. He respects elders and women. He does not do any work which will hurt anyone, he has tremendous power and still he is very simple…” On viewers’ response, he says, “People have started calling me Dutta. It feels great to get acknowledged by your fans. The other day I was driving my car and I was surprised to know that even the traffic police recognized me and started talking to me in Marathi. I was happy when he asked me, ‘How are you, Dutta Bhau .” About his chemistry with Mahhi Vij (Nakusha), he says, “There is no chemistry in reality; on screen too there is no need to have any chemistry at this moment. She is a good co-star; we do rehearse a few scenes if it requires and improvise it.” So what kept him busy all these years? “I was not getting proper TV offers. Then I took up one movie but it did not work. So I learnt dance, did few ads. I want do films but only if the script is interesting. Reality shows are not my cup of tea, participating in such shows do not excite me and money is not important for me at this point of time. I am happy with the work I am getting. Though, I would not mind hosting a reality show.” How is the atmosphere on the sets? “If I get a break of 10-20 minutes then you will always find me eating somewhere or listening to music. I love to eat. I do not believe in dieting, I just avoid eating ghee and meetha . Otherwise we chat with each other most of the actors on the show like Kaliji (Nakusha’s father), Pawan (Malmal More) are senior. Pawan was brilliant in Black Friday . They all are powerful actors and it is nice to work with them. Chinmayee (Nakusha’mother) and others are also very good they keep on cracking jokes so we enjoy it.” So is he single? “I am single but not ready to mingle now. It is not like that I am not interested in girls but till date I have not found a girl who I felt was the one for me. Right now I want to focus on my work and if I find a suitable girl then I will surely talk about it happily.”