Kismat is for the family audience : Viraf Phiroz Patel

Viraf Phiroz Patel was quite a hit with the girls for his stint as Shiv in Mahi Way on Sony. The model- turned-actor is now back as Aditya Raj Merchant, a rich and ambitious businessman in YRF’s Kismat. Here’s Viraf in conversation about his role and what kept him busy post Mahi Way… What attracted you to the role? Yash Raj. (Laughs) Why make bones about the fact that they are the largest content producers in the country. Any actor aspires to work with them. They have given me a role of my lifetime. So when I heard about my character, all I said to Aditya Chopra was ‘Thank You’. That kind of sums it up. Did you prepare for the role in anyway? Reading the script is a lot of preparation, also in terms of my physical appearance. When I was playing ‘old’ I tried not to look muscular and hunky and when I was required to be that I put in that effort. Apart from that, I saw a lot of Ratan Tata in my character though I don’t know him personally. I imagined myself in his place and tried to visualize their response towards a situation. I tried to bring my craft to the table, to make it more classy and polished. After working on Aditya Raj Merchant and for this show, I feel as if I have worked on four films together! How comfortable are you with the idea that content is not the only driving point for audiences today? Only when you have the attitude to give or make something different, you succeed and that’s what happened with Mahi Way and Powder. We’ve attracted numbers among the niche audience but that’s the story of India where there’s a huge divide between the rural class and the urban class. But as an actor was it difficult for you and what kept you busy post Mahi Way? Kismat! We’ve been working for it since May and are still shooting. This effort that goes into shooting the show is thrice the time required for other shows. We shoot for 170-200 days and there is the post production then which ensures we raise the bar. Kismat is the most ambitious daily soap we’ve come up with. I hope the audiences sense it as well. So you’re saying Kismat is meant for the masses unlike the other YRF shows? Mahi Way reached out to the urban audience, Rishta.com hit the youth and with Kismat we are looking at the family audience, from 15-35. There was a buzz about Mahi Way coming back; will you be back as Shiv in the show? Yes, there’s been some kind of indication. The responses have been good and the audiences have been waiting for it. So are you YRF’s blue-eyed boy? It’s best answered by someone in Yash Raj but Ravina Kohli (the head of the television division in YRF) on being asked by a journalist why she repeated us, said that we were the best. That was very sweet.