Jayshree Venketaramanan and Aaradhana Uppal speak on how it is like to step into the shoes of journalists in Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha

Author Oscar Wilde went on to trash journalism with his famous quotes like, “By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community,” and “the difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable whereas literature is not read.” In an age predominated by yellow journalism, it is refreshing to see some journalists even risking their lives to unravel the truth to help society. Indeed there are still a handful of them in real life and also on your favourite TV shows. Nanhi (Jayshree Venketaramanan) of Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha season 2 may have had become a journalist to find her long lost brother Addu; but now that she is at the profession she is undertaking journalistic assignments with fervour attempting to unearth the truth through daring sting operations and venturing into very dangerous territory to source information. On a subconscious level her icon Mohan Bhatnagar (her step-father whom she endearingly addresses as Spiderman) has motivated her to become a journalist. Indeed even her working style to crack stories is very similar to that of his. In the opening episode she may have had been opinionated in her sweeping generalisation that all step fathers are cruel and untrustworthy; which greatly offended Mohan Bhatnagar who has been misled into feeling that he has failed as a step dad. Nevertheless Nanhi was destined to be Mohan Bhatnagar’s Watson in cracking the most difficult cases. Mohan also happens to be her boss at her workplace. To aid Nanhi there is the rough and rugged Beera who may not possess formal educational degrees but is nevertheless knowledgeable and hence a mentor and guide to her. We asked Jayshree as to how she had prepared for the role of a spunky journalist. She informed us, “I have many journalist friends. As I am an actress in real life, I also meet many journalists on a daily basis. I have observed journalists minutely- not just the way in which they walk, talk and dress but also the entire process of how they work. Before our show started airing I also visited the offices of news channels. I had observed the unique characteristics of journalists and had imbibed the same in me.” When asked if she feels that journalism nowadays isn’t up-to-the-mark she replied diplomatically, “I really don’t have the authority to comment if most of the journalism nowadays is meaningful or not. However, the more meaningful the journalism the better will it be for the society. I can however say that journalists should go to the root of the problem just like Nanhi who conducts sting operations and investigates before jumping to conclusions. Good journalists will make people turn their heads to the right cause just like our journalists did on Nirbhaya’s rape in New Delhi.” When asked which news channels and journalists the actress looks up to, she answers, “I look up to Barkha Dutt and Arnab Goswami. I like to tune into the TV channels Times Now, Headlines Today and Aaj Tak.” Aaradhana Uppal who plays Nanhi’s boss Anupuma sports short hair like Barkha Dutt which made us ponder as to whether she has been deliberately made to look like this celebrity journalist. The actress laughed it off saying, “It is mere coincidence that Barkha and I have short hair. I have at times heard that I look like actresses like Ruby Bhatia, Achint Kaur and Mita Vashisht but nobody has felt that I look like Barkha. I feel I look very different from her.” Her take on her role in the serial is, “Initially I thought that I was to play a ruthless and cold blooded channel head. After a discussion with the creative team and director I got to know that the character would be somewhat different. I was to play a thoroughly professional journalist who like any news channel head is just after TRPs.” Aaradhana is happy that more women are becoming journalists in real life. “I feel happy that whenever someone calls me from Tellychakkar.com it is a lady. Earlier there were more men in journalism. Now women are in journalism by the front leg.” Awaz India Live on Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha is indeed being an exemplary news channel to the journalists of today to pursue journalism which actually makes a difference to society.