Actress Renuka Shahane’s phone chat with a journalist should serve as a cautionary tale for scribes operating in the age of Twitter. The conversation, recorded in a now-viral post on her Facebook page – which is unverified – is both hilarious and shameful (and we do hope the journo in question is very ashamed).
Posted two days ago, Ms Shahane’s wry account of the phone encounter details how the hack in question didn’t know which TV serials she had starred in, what she meant by a ‘weekly show’ and why she was ‘drawing an allergy.’
The interview – and we hope to never see it published anywhere with the ‘allergy drawn’ – was pegged around TV stars of a certain vintage. As an accomplished actor and star of Circus (yes, the one with Shah Rukh Khan), Imtihaan and Kora Kaagaz – apart from the much-mentioned Surabhi which she co-hosted – Ms Shahane, 49, is supremely qualified to have been answering the journalist’s questions.
Alas, this is how it went:
A “journalist” called on behalf of a well-known daily, I’ll call him J for short.
J: Ma’am we would like to ‘do’ your interview for a column about veteran tv actors.
Me: Okay
J: So apart from Surabhi which I remember you’ve done Swabhimaan right?
Me: Many serials but not Swabhimaan
J: Oh no no it was Shanti right? It was very popular….
Me: It sure was but I wasn’t in it?
J (sounding utterly gobsmacked): Er….then what were you in? Please tell me names of your serials?
Me: Why didn’t you do your homework?
J: Please ma’am help me now…I will do it from next time….only a few questions
Me: Okay
J: What is the difference between the serials you did & the serials today?
Me: Serials I acted in were weeklies.
J: Weeklies?
Me ( patiently): We have daily soaps now…they are called dailies because they are shown daily. My Serials were called Weeklies because they were shown once a week
J: Oh so only once a week? You mean one story for one week?
Me: No….how do I explain this? You have daily newspapers, weekly magazines, fortnightly ones & monthly ones…..some are printed quarterly? Right?
J: Oh so you had a lot of variety like Weeklies & Fortnightly
Me: No no….I mean we had variety….but I was just drawing an analogy so that you could relate it to your work
Pause
Me: Are you there?
J: Yes ma’am….I thought you were drawing something so I waited
Me: Hmmmm are you writing anything down at all?
J: Ma’am I’ve got an excellent memory…..you’ve acted in Surabhi….and you’ve acted in Shanti which was a weekly & you acted in a variety of Fortnightly & quarterly Serials too ma’am
Me (trying to hold back the mirth): You’re amazing….you’ve got it spot on….now may I please go back to er….drawing analogies
J: Sure ma’am….if you what’s app me the photo of the drawing of the “allergy” I can include it as your hobby….it’s a very unique concept.
Sigh….some journalists are a source of great entertainment…..the upside is that I’ve bought myself a canvas….still not been able to draw my “allergy” though.
The reporter who failed to do homework is probably squirming now.
Renuka Shahane, who is married to actor Ashutosh Rana, co-starred with Salman Khan in the movie Hum Aapke Hain Koun. Her last major film was the Marathi-language Highway from last year.
