Actors Hema Sood & Somendra Solanki open up on what went WRONG with ‘Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai’

The actors had quite a lot of revelations.

Friday turned out to be a big day for the fans of Sony TV’s Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai with actors Somendra Solanki and Hema Sood, who play Arjun and Shefali on the show, openly announcing their decision to part ways with the show and that too on not so ‘cordial’ terms.

We got in touch with both Somendra and Hema and here’s what they had to say.
“We both wrote what we felt,” said Somendra Solanki, about Hema and his announcement on social media about the end of their journey with their Sony TV show Yeh Un Dino Ki Baat Hai.

“We were signed on as the parallel leads and were promised a track as integral to the plot as that of Sameer (Randeep Rai) and Naina’s (Ashi Singh) love story. And what we get in return is – shoot for 4-5 days from the entire 20 days allotted to them, our footage is cut to a mere minute or two instead of the 3-4 minutes that we shot and also ill-treatment meted out to us,” a dejected Somendra revealed.

He continued, “When I was signed the show, I was told that my love story would begin after 35 episodes. Well, that was dragged and then my scenes were cut down substantially to 1-2 scenes. I did not say anything. Then came the wedding track where Shefali and Arjun had some beautiful scenes. But at the time of telecast, they were cut down from 4 minutes to 1 minute. When we confronted the team over this, they told us that it was not going in tandem with the track this time, so we asked them to be careful next time. In fact, during the shoot of this very track, my real brother was getting married. But I was given a leave of only 3 days and hence made it to my own brother’s wedding at the last minute.”

Opening about their treatment on the sets, the actor told us, “Apart from our scenes being cut down, we were also treated badly on the sets of the show. The director would never pay attention to our shots as well. While others were allowed multiple retakes of their scenes, Hema and I were told by our director – “jaisa shoot hoga waisa hi jaayega. No retakes.” You would not believe me when I tell you that in the past 4-5 months, we’ve changed 6-7 directors. And our present director is more interested in shooting content for his personal YouTube channel on his mobile than directing our scenes.”

“Out and out, we’ve shot for 15-20 scenes, but in the past one and a half month, Arjun and Shefali’s scenes haven’t been telecast at all. When Hema and I asked the EP, we were told that our scenes cannot be telecast alongside Sameer and Naina’s. We work so hard to better our scenes, Hema and I always improvise. But they cut even the improvised parts. As artists we deserve better treatment than this,” said Somendra.

“Before I moved to Mumbai to pursue my dream of acting, I did theatre in Delhi and have even directed plays. We do not deserve to be treated like this especially after being signed on as ‘parallel leads’ and after putting in so much of effort. In fact, Hema and I had put in our papers in March and even served our notice period which ended in April. But then the production requested us to give them time till 30th April to shoot another scene, which they did. And even after asking us for 15 days extra, they used our dates to shoot for only 3-4 days (which also requires some patch work and I am willing to fulfil that obligation). Now the team has told us to take up work outside but have asked us to allot them dates in the month of May or June (as per their schedule) to shoot the climax scene. And this is something that I am not going to give them,” said the agitated actor.

When asked if producers Shashi and Sumeet Mittal had gotten in touch with him, Somendra revealed, “They haven’t and I do not think they will. In fact, long back when I’d addressed my concerns with Shashi Ma’am and asked her to either give me more space to perform or let me go, this is what she said and I quote her – “aisa hi hota hai industry mein, agar aapko pata nahi hai toh.”

Fans have been texting me saying they are happy with whatever Arjun-shefali scenes they get, but the truth is that they get too see only 10% of what we have shot. I’ll like to tell them that if they block an actor’s dates for 20 days in a month, he/she expects to shoot for atleast 10 days. But I’ve shot for 5 days a few months, then it went up to 8-10 days and in very rare occasions, I have shot for 15 days.”

Somendra went on, “I am not asking them for screen time, I am asking them to telecast all that we’ve shot, even if it’s a 15 second scene, they should telecast the 15 seconds and not cut it short. I know this step of mine may be perceived as ‘unprofessional’, but I want everybody to know how we’ve been harassed in the show. I’d signed an exclusivity contract which barred me from taking up work outside.Now I am free and open to other projects, but I had to take this step to make people aware that they should speak up when there is no fault of theirs,” the actor revealed.

When we spoke to Hema she said, “This was not an abrupt step. It has been happening since the past 4-5 months. We were promised something else and we are getting something else altogether in return. So we thought of taking this step, which was not easy at all considering this is a popular show.”

Hema went on, “I strongly believe that if there is no growth in what you are doing, you shouldn’t have to think twice to move on. There is no point in working if you are not growing and as acting is my first love, I cannot let anything bad happen to it.
I also let go of lead roles in two shows with big production houses (which Hema refused to name) because I was locked with Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai as the parallel lead. In fact, our production house had meetings with these other production houses over letting me go. They convinced me that humara track aayega. We were promised that our track will be as strong as that of Sameer and Naina’s, but we do not know what happened,” said Hema.

“We will not go around explaining to everybody about what happened, but we will not even keep quiet, if unfair treatment is meted out to us, even after being very accommodating and professional. I will not deny that we have gained a lot from the show including fame. We have amassed a huge fan base and have been appreciated for our talent, but there’s only so much one can take when things are not proceeding as promised,”

“Also as i am getting a lot of messages from my fans, so this is for them. ‘It’s really hard for an artist to take such steps. Even though, we are not willing to as we are also humans and equally connected to our fans emotionally.. And truly it is not an easy Bye.. But here’s a promise that I’ll be soon be seen to entertain you all again.. Much love n respect,”concluded the actress.

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