Mahhi Vij on TV’s changing landscape: Casting is now driven by social media followers

Actress Mahhi Vij was in Lucknow to shoot for her much-awaited comeback show. In an exclusive interview, Mahhi opened up about her experiences in the city, her return to acting after nearly a decade, and her perspective on changes in the entertainment industry, weaving heartfelt anecdotes and candid reflections throughout the conversation.

Revisiting her rootsHer connection with the region runs deep and goes beyond the current shoot. “It wasn’t my debut visit to Lucknow. I was coming to the city after 14 years but it seemed so new to me. It has changed so much. But in my current show, for which I was shooting here, since I am playing a Lucknow woman, I have learnt a lot of nuances of the city’s culture, demeanour and their language, their way of speaking, which I am observing and learning from localites.

” Mahhi recalled fond memories of her maternal home, saying, “But more than Lucknow, I have been a frequent visitor to Kanpur since childhood since my nanihal is there. In fact, most of my summer vacations were spent in Kanpur only. I wish to take my daughter, Tara, someday to Kanpur and show her the places where I have spent my childhood. It’s been seven years that I visited Kanpur, but I will go there soon.”

Journey back to actingDiscussing what inspired her to restart her acting career, Mahhi shared, “I am making my comeback after 9 years and it was my elder daughter who motivated me.

She is the one who said that she wants to see me on the big screen. Plus, my younger one is six and a half years old now so I can go out and work.” Despite her responsibilities at home, Mahhi manages to balance motherhood and her professional commitments gracefully. She reflects, “I didn’t face any motherhood challenges as we didn’t do any outdoor shoot initially.

However, when I had come to Lucknow for 10 days, and my daughter had come back from Japan with Jay, she came home and looked for me and said that she wanted her mumma to get her ready for school...that

made me quite emotional.”Changes in the TV IndustryWhen asked about shifts in the TV industry, Mahhi observes, “Nothing much has changed in the television industry, whether it is the erratic working hours or no weekly offs. The only thing that has changed now is that majority of casting is done on the basis of social media followers and touchwood, I have a good number of followers. However, I saw Sandhya Mridul’s videos recently where she complained that she did not get work because of lack of followers on her social media account. That’s sad!”

Changing audience preferencesTouching on the trends impacting television content today, she expressed concern over the short lifespan of fiction shows. “Let’s hope our show works, I am positive about it. But the problem today is that earlier television channels were competing amongst each other, and shows could still survive and do good. However, now there is too much on the plate, especially in terms of OTT and short reels on mobile, while earlier people had a routine to watch TV.

The entertainment options are many, and the time spent on it is scattered so the attention span to watch shows has gone down.”Lucknow’s warmth and flavoursMahhi started by sharing her joy of working in the City of Nawabs. “Shooting in Lucknow with localites has been great. There is a warmth in the city, people are also very lovely, they talk with so much tehzeeb. I love the way how Lucknowites add ‘ji’ after every name which is not commonly found in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

I also loved the food here and had kababs and chicken. I also went to a few restaurants, and let me tell you the food in Lucknow is great.

Maine Lucknow mein daba ke khaya hai.” Her love for the city, however, comes with one minor grievance. She adds, “The only thing I didn’t like about Lucknow was the continuous honking of vehicles on roads. When I asked my driver to not honk so much he said it was necessary to manage the hay-wire traffic on road.”-Amina Ashraf