Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon actor: We’ve crossed 400mn viewership because of the content

Actor Meinal Vaishnav, who plays the lead role of Dr. Sneha Mathur in Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon, talks about the show becoming one of the most watched around the globe, crossing 400 million viewership across 50 cities worldwide. Actor Meinal Vaishnav’s show, Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon, which airs on Doordarshan, is breaking taboos by addressing issues such as menstruation, female foeticide and child marriages. At a time when commercial shows on TV are still depending on regressive ideas to garner TRPs, this show has crossed 400 million viewership across the globe, also becoming one of the most watched shows worldwide.

“Other shows are giving people what they want, and we are giving people what they need [to watch]. People didn’t really know that shows like ours can be made. Who wants to see a woman indulging in petty politics as a housewife or turning into a naagin? It has no logic but just because people don’t have better things to watch, they accept it. Also, there is an emotional commitment to characters, which they have been watching for years now,” says Meinal, explaining why the audience watches saas-bahu sagas. Meinal pays the protagonist Dr. Sneha Mathur, who quits her city job to work with people in her village.

She adds, “I know that now our show has reached the 400 million mark, and it’s an amazing thing. If it’s happening, it shows that people are ready to watch something new.” Meinal, who hails from Rajasthan, says that the first season of the show started off as just another family show, but once the audience hooked, the makers decided to bring in a twist. “This show is the reverse of other shows on TV. Others start with a new concept but after a few weeks, they will go back to the saas-bahu drama. In this show, we started with the concept of a family drama and then moved on to a stronger theme. Initially to attract people, you have to give them what they are used to. All of a sudden, we can’t offer them something, which they cannot relate to. Once audience started watching the show, we started putting in relevant messages in it,” says Meinal.

The actor, who confesses to have given up other show offers to concentrate on Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon, gets to know about the social issues through audience, who contact her on social media. “People often tell me about their experiences, on my Facebook page. Every time I go to any small town, people think I am Dr Sneha. All the questions that they have are related to issues, which others don’t talk about easily. Initially when I joined the show, I did not know that it will become this huge, but now it has become a way of life for me,” says the actor, adding, “I have been to small villages in central India, Bihar and other small parts of the country and I feel that social issues are a reality there. Sometimes, we can’t understand the importance of the issue because we stay in urban areas, where we don’t talk about these issues openly, and avoid them to sound cool.” Given the success of the ongoing second season, the makers are already planning for the third season of the show.