Sudhanshu Pandey: After Anupama, I realised how incredibly popular television can make you

Actor Sudhanshu Pandey, who is currently seen in Rajan Shahi’s Anupama, says that he had not imagined the kind of success and popularity TV could give before he became part of the show.

“I had a lot of television offers in the last so many years and I would refuse almost all of them for various reasons. Finally, Rajan's offer came my way and he basically had to tell me only one line and I told him let's do it. The show had a fantastic story line. My character was absolutely brilliant and he didn't have to convince me much. He mentally prepared me for a long time before I got into this scenario of this daily show as it is a completely different world for me,” he says.

He adds, “I have a huge body of work behind me, including some 47-48 feature films in Hindi, some Tamil films and one Hollywood film. I was a part of India's first-ever boy band i.e the Band of Boys. We were a rage during 2002-2005. We were probably one of the biggest ones. We were seeing popularity on another level. After such a long time, becoming part of a show like Anupama, I realised how incredibly popular television can make you. Obviously, television has a different set of audiences. It's slightly different from the audiences of the OTT platforms or films. Daily shows have a very loyal and different audience. Stardom and fame that I had got with this show is something that I had not imagined earlier. We are blessed that the show has become so popular today and I can't thank God enough for the show and the kind of popularity I got after the show.”

TV content has evolved with time, says the actor. “Television was initially women-centric and there is change in the content. But I think the content on Indian television is always going to be targeted at the masses and the middle-class audiences. As it has the largest audience and that's where the popularity comes from. So, the content has not changed too much or too far,” he says.