FROM SOAPS TO SAAT PHERAS

TV actress Gauri Pradhan has reinvented herself from a reluctant soap opera goddess to a boutique wedding planner. Once the most loved face in soaps, Gauri Pradhan has a distant look when asked about her last TV stint. "Meri Aashiqui Tumhi Se... or Tum Se Hi or something," she stuttered, claiming the title was too long to remember. "In the first few months of shooting, I kept asking Hiten (her husband) which one is it," smiled the actress, who has moved on from TV to set up a wedding planning outfit, called Knotty Tales, with Pallavee Duggall (actor Rajniesh Duggall's wife). Her shift was triggered by parenthood and demanding television schedules. "Most TV shows are now being shot in Naigaon. This means a two-hour commute one way. And I want to be around when my kids leave for school and return," she shared. The actress, who believes in doing "only one thing at a time", was never keen on the small screen. "I was big on modelling when I started out," said the Miss India aspirant, who participated in the beauty pageant in 1998, incidentally her last year in college. "I was shuttling between Mumbai and Pune (her hometown), when I met a senior actor associated with Cinevista at a party. He felt I would be perfect for an ambitious project they were producing for Doordarshan. Two hundred girls had been rejected for the part by then," she remembered of her TV debut, the eponymous role in Noorjahan, opposite Milind Soman who played Salim.

Playing a Mughal queen meant Gauri had to learn Urdu, fencing, horse riding and even acting. "I hated them, but they were paying for everything, so I didn't mind it as much," she smiled. The show "did well in the interiors", she informed us — a reason why it caught the attention of dogged TV queen Ekta Kapoor, who offered Gauri her most iconic small-screen avatar in Balaji Telefilms' Kutumb. "After my first TV show, I'd saved up enough for a holiday and was all packed to leave for a vacation when Balaji approached me with Kutumb," she said. Gauri rejected the offer, pegging her holiday as a deal-breaker. "But they were persistent and said they'd wait for my return. I quoted an obnoxious figure to make them re-consider, but they actually matched it and I was out of excuses. Ekta is like that. If she decides that she wants something or somebody, she will get it at any cost," she said of the TV stint that made her a household name. A string of TV shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kumkum and Left Right Left followed. Her last, Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi, which wrapped up last year, had her play the mother of the lead. "The role was fabulous but I won't play a mother on TV again," said the mum of seven-year-old twins. Turning wedding planner was driven by her hunt for a "creatively gratifying" career. "I am a Virgo and love planning things and am very particular about how I want something," she said sternly. Barely a few months in the business, Knotty Tales has earned the love of many satisfied clients. Popular themes, she shares, are "Great Gatsby" (read: gold and black) and vintage.

"Most young people, who pay for their own weddings, are big on food. They're willing to fly down a chef from their favourite restaurants and even rope in musicians to perform a gig at the venue. But they want it to be an intimate affair. They don't want to invite 1,000 people at a five-star but prefer 200-300 people at a bungalow in Alibaug," she said, adding that "steel is the colour in vogue". The challenge, predictably, is getting paid. "Most clients want the world, only until you share the budget with them. Then they don't want anything," she laughed.