Upala KBR (DNA; March 15, 2014)

Bolly actors are no longer content with just ruling the big screen. With the reach of television growning in the last decade, they now want to woo the small screen audiences as well. The money is good too. No wonder the Khan, Kumars and Bachchans now compete with each other over TRPs along with box-office figures. A few actresses like Madhuri Dixit Nene, Raveena Tandon Thadani, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Sonali Bendre etc have made a place for themselves in the idiot box. Now Bipasha Basu has decided she is ready to flirt with the medium as well.

Priyanka Chopra has hosted one of the seasons of Fear Factor, that or perhaps a fitness show, along the lines of The Biggest Loser (Suniel Shetty had done the first series) would be more suited to her personality. The actress shrugs, “I don’t know.”

Bips claims she has had a few offers but she hasn’t committed to anything yet. She is currently obsessed with watching television. But not Indian soaps, though she admits she liked Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss and Anil Kapoor’s thriller drama 24 — both shows are Indian versions of foreign shows. She says, “I am obsessed with English TV series. I love a lot of series but amongst my favourites are Orphan Black, House Of Cards, Scandal, Homeland, Revenge, Mindy Project, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Sherlock BBC and Breaking Bad.”

Currently, she is hooked on 30 Rock. “I Love Tina Fey’s character! I would love to play a character like Liz Lemon who play’s Tina’s character in 30 Rock. It is just so funny. If an Indian TV series were made as good as these shows, I wouldn’t hesitate. Television is a fantastic medium. But I need the content to be fabulous before I agree to be a part of it. Television series here need to raise the bar and be of international standard in terms of content and quality.”

Bipasha reveals that she is contemplating taking up one of the TV soaps offered to her. “They are new-age, modern soaps which I love and not saas-bahu dramas.” She is not averse to the idea of hosting a reality show either. “Reality shows are fun to watch, and yes eventually I would like to do them!” However much she loves American shows, she isn’t keen on acting in them, “International soaps will be tough to do as I live in India and have work here including my films so travelling would take its toll.”