Exclusive - We missed Anupam Shyam aka Sajjan Singh a lot while shooting for 'Pratigya Ki Ankahee Dastaan': Pooja Gor

Pooja Gor, who is returning to the small screen once again with her popular character Pratigya for a special two-hour film 'Pratigya Ki Ankahee Dastaan', is very excited. The special feature is based on the show 'Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya' and will feature the hit pair of Arhaan Behll and Pooja from the show. The actress exclusively spoke to ETimes TV and shared that film will have a new and different story and how much they missed one of the most important characters Sajjan Singh aka Anupam Shyam on the sets.
"The original story of Pratigya was about a girl from a small town who stands against everything that is unjust and not right. After that Pratigya became a representative of problems that women face in our society. Through the show we have always shown all kinds of problems that women face in real life. Be it the gender bias, double standards or other stuff, Pratigya has voiced her opinion. With this special film also we have kept the universe and characters of Pratigya the same but the subject and the treatment is going to be different. It will be a representation of the problems which has been faced by a lot of women in our society," she said.
When asked how different it was to shoot for a two-hour film based concept as compared to daily soap and the actress said, "It was a very different working experience because it is a two hour film set up. In a daily soap format you don’t get to evolve with the character or experiment. When I joined Pratigya I was playing a young girl in season one and in the second season I was playing a mother of two kids and this character that I am playing now is from an age group which is in between both the characters. It was very tricky to go back to play something very different within a month’s time as recently the season 2 went off air."
Pooja and Arhaan Behll's chemistry has been loved by the viewers in the first and second seasons of the show. The actress says that working with Arhaan is always very comfortable, "Second season of a cult show like Pratigya was like a blessing for all of us. We had the most amazing time working on the show every single day. I am going to cherish the time even more than season one. We shot the show during such a difficult time (pandemic). It was all the more special and we all got to bond together after so many years. Arhaan and my chemistry touchwood by God’s grace has been quite amazing. It is always very comfortable to work with him. Even if the season 2 hadn’t come and the makers had approached us 10 years later for this maha episode, our chemistry still would have been the same. I am thousand percent sure our chemistry wouldn’t have got affected."
Talking about Anupam Shyam aka Sajjan Singh, who passed away recently, Pooja stated that they missed him a lot while shooting for this special film. She said there can never be another Sajjan Singh, "We missed him a lot. The makers and writers kept figuring out what to do about it. I am pretty sure they must have thought every permutation and combination to bring another actor to play his character or whether to not mention him at all. But I don’t think replacement could have been an option because everyone knows that there can’t be another Sajjan Singh. I don’t think anyone can replace him. It is a character that shouldn’t be touched at all. He left the legacy and that shouldn’t be hampered with. Keeping that in mind nobody has taken his place. We did miss him a lot because the show is incomplete without our primary characters. It is a big void that still stays."