From Paras Kalnawat and Nidhi Shah addressing the toxic culture to Sudhanshu Pandey's struggle to stretch Vanraj; here's what made the trio quit Anupamaa

Anupamaa has been a cult show, ever since its inception the show has been on the top charts. Now, with the fun podcast with Bakhtiyaar Irani and Ali Asgar, the stars from the show Sudhanshu Pandey, Nidhi Shah and Paras Kalnawat got candid about their exit, the toxic culture and more. Here's what they shared:

It had been four years and this was my life's first daily soap. I have done over 50 feature films and OTT, this was my first experience. Then Anupamaa happened when COVID had just kicked in. And from then on till now, four years the show became a cult. It has created history. But now, everything has its time when everything starts to descend. For me, it had become quite difficult to make it look effortless onscreen. It takes a lot of effort to continue the character to have the same graph the way I had created it. Soon, there would be a time when the viewers would have been done with it. They would say 'wohi same cheez, bohot hogaya yaar.' And I fear that.

We have had the trigger point, there have been times. Couldn't do it, our scenes were monotonous, we would fight every day. All our scenes had so many fights onscreen as well. So at a point, I felt like ab nahi yeh scene karna hai, ab tere saath kaam hi nahi karna hai. There were times when even if we wanted to talk cordially, after the fights it was not possible. While Bakhtiyaar hinted at the lead of Anupamaa, Nidhi continued, she is a very good actor, I am not being politically right here. But then there are few on every set who are like that.

Paras claimed, 'Mere scenes kaate the', to which Nidhi continued that they faced the same. She even added, 'I have gone through this, there were issues with clothes and hair, and they would be like why is she getting such good clothes and all.'

I was the first one to leave, that too all of a sudden. I didn't even know that I was leaving or asked to leave. I wanted to quit but then, with them, it is like there is no exit clause. If you want to leave then terms kharab ho jayenge. With me, I wanted my track to increase and someone had cut down my screenspace and track and I know about that.

Baktiyaar and Ali ask, 'An actor has the power to cut tracks of their co-stars? The production team doesn't take the decision?' Who is going to talk to the No 1 show, if someone saying I have a problem shooting with this guy so they will fulfil her wish? I don't want to name that person but everybody knows.