Amber Dhara

Sony’s much hyped show about conjoined twins — Amber Dhara — was launched with sky-high expectations; but after the twins were separated on screen, the show too has come apart. The low TRPs received by the show and perhaps the channel’s preoccupation with reality shows has led to this drama series being summarily scrapped by the channel within eight months.

With the show reaching a dead end, we wondered how the lead actresses were coping; especially since they had spent several months literally joined to each other for the duration of the day’s shooting!

There’s both relief and regret in the voice of 21-year-old Kashmira Irani, who played Amber on the show.

Palpable regret tinges Kashmira voice as she says, “I would have been disappointed whenever the show were to go off air. I am going to miss our team. We were like a family and I’m missing every bit of Amber Dhara. I’m going to especially miss Dhara (Sulagna Panigrahi) because she was stuck to me 24x7 (laughs). We miss each other acutely because it is like missing a part of your body. We actually were living the lives of conjoined twins. It was difficult initially but later we got used to it and we even grew to enjoy it because we were the centre of attraction everywhere. We would go together even for parties and people would say ‘Oh God how do you girls manage?’”

But why did Amber Dhara reach such a sudden end. Karishma feels that it was the “constant change of time slots. That is how we lost out on our audience. But despite this, we were still one of the popular shows on Sony TV. Even now after it has gone off air, kids come running to us and say: ‘Why did it go off air?’ They say they had not seen anything like that on television.”

But Kashmira admits to mixed feelings. “Physically it is a relief not to have a person joined to your side. But at the same time it’s strange. Yesterday, Sulagna called me and said: ‘Hey what's up? I’m missing you’. We will always remain in touch with each other.”

At 21, Kashmira looks ready to move on. “Right now I’m on a break and just chilling out and very soon I’m planning a vacation with my family. I will be going to Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok. Later, I want to do Bollywood (laughs). Every actor’s dream is Bollywood. If something good comes my way on TV, I will do it. I have had a few offers but I’m taking it easy as I want to do something different like Amber Dhara.”