October 8, 2010 : In the Indian television industry, using a ‘body double’ is a common trend. Many leading telly actresses have their duplicates like Amrapali Dubey of ‘Rehna Hai Teri Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein’, Ratan Rajput of ‘Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo’, Aasiya Kazi of ‘Bandini’, Roshni Parekh of ‘Ek Chutki Aasman’ and Shubhangi Atre of ‘Do Hanso Ka Jodaa’.
The body doubles are usually used in crisis situations when the actress is not able to report on the sets on time or has fallen ill. However, our Ratan Rajput aka ‘Lali’ of ‘Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo’ is not in favor of using a ‘body double’. The actress thinks that, even though, she had to use one recently, she never liked the idea of ‘body double’. She added that she was bound to use one because she was not well. Ratan wanted to thank the duplicates as they are the people, who make life easier for the actors during their difficult times.
Ratan further said that she does not feel the actors are deceiving their fans by using body doubles. She thinks that it should not be used just to earn more money, but if it is used for genuine reason, then it is acceptable.
However, the producers think that body doubles should be used only in case of emergency because it increases cost of shooting for them.
As Sukesh Motwani, fiction head of an entertainment channel, was quoted saying that these body doubles are used only once in 15 scenes and they can be used only for 10 to 15 seconds as a replacement of the original actor.
Well, Ratan seems to be very professional when it comes to use a ‘body double’ as she prefers to shoot all her scenes herself!
