Exclusive! Just because I got engaged on national television, people thought it was a gimmick: Ratan Rajput

Ratan Rajput, who has been a part of shows like Radha Ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhayengi, Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo and Santoshi Maa, is gearing up to return to television. While she doesn’t want to talk about the show, which is still in the pipeline, the actress reveals how she spent time during the pandemic pursuing her interest in psychology. She also spoke about her reality show Ratan Ka Rishta (2010), in which she chose a potential groom for herself. After getting engaged to him on national television, the two called off their engagement a year later. Ratan doesn’t regret doing the reality show, but it did impact her acting career, she says. Excerpts from a conversation...

I know people have been assuming that I did the show for money and attention, but that’s not true. I took a lot of time to give my nod to the show. It wasn’t fake at all, everything was organic and real. Just because I found a man on the show and got engaged on television, people thought it was a gimmick. After Abhinav Sharma and I got engaged, I took a break from work for a year to work on our relationship. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, so it was a mutual decision to call it off. If I wasn’t serious about it, why would I take a break from work? If we just wanted money, we could have lied and participated in dance reality shows together to earn, but we didn’t do any of that. I feel upset when people assume such things.

No, I have no regrets. Some people in the industry said that they would have cast me in their projects had I not done the show. I could never understand that logic; my acting skills were still the same and nothing could affect my work. At that time, all this had affected me badly, but now I just brush it off.

I want it to happen naturally. I would like a simple and down-to-earth man with whom I can connect and spend time. But currently, there’s no such person on the radar.

I don't think Bigg Boss helped me much. I was being offered the show for two years. I wasn’t taking it up because I felt that I was not the right candidate. But I wanted to build relations with the channel and I wanted to work on a show on the channel so I took up the Bigg Boss offer. I thought if I would do Bigg oss, I probably would get another show later. That clearly hasn’t happened until now. I still regret that I couldn’t give much to the Bigg Boss show, and the show too gave me anything in return.

While the pandemic has been difficult for everyone, I used the time to learn various things. I completed a course in Psychology and I’m very happy about that. I think I am a better listener now. While I don’t plan to take this up as a profession, I would like to help people with my knowledge.

I want to play realistic characters, ones which we can relate to in our day-to-day lives.