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Amar Upadhyay’s character Mihir’s death on Ekta Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi remains one of the most significant moments in Indian television history. There was a huge fan frenzy to get Mihir back on the show because fans couldn’t handle their favourite television character dying out of the blue. In a recent chat with Pinkvilla, Amar recalled that when he left the hit show, he had too much on his plate. And since his ultimate aim was to be a film actor, he decided that leaving television was probably the right call at the time.
Looking back at his decision to exit Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Amar recalled that while he had many film and television producers advising him on what his next step should be, ultimately “anything that I did was all my decision”. He said, “When I started my journey, I wanted to be a film actor. I am being very honest and brutal. That’s the truth. Every other TV actor wants to be a film actor. Very few come out and accept it. But I accept it. I never gave up also, I am still trying.”
Amar Upadhyay shared that there was a flood of film offers at the time and he “also randomly signed 4-5 films” out of a dozen films that were offered. Apart from that, the actor had three television shows that were riding on his shoulders, and as a result of that, he was busy for almost 25 days in a month with his television commitments. “I was doing Mehendi Tere Naam Ki, Kalash, and of course, there was Kyunki. So these three shows, I was playing the lead in them. Out of all the films I had signed, three films were on the floor. So there was too much on my plate, it was spilling out actually. I was going mad handling dates. I didn’t know how to handle it,” he said.
Amar recalled that he did not have a manager at the time and was handling all of his dates by himself. “I kind of messed up as I was handling my dates. I didn’t have a manager at that point in time who could do that because I didn’t believe in that concept but I wish I had one,” he said. And all of this mess resulted in TV producers saying they couldn’t handle it anymore.
“Ultimately, what my TV producers said was that we can’t handle this. I was in such a stage with films that I couldn’t leave them or I couldn’t do them without leaving the show. So I had to make a decision and I had to leave TV because in films it was difficult to leave and it was not fair to the film producers because they can’t replace me,” he told Pinkvilla. Amar said that he suggested his television producers to give him a break, but that did not work out.
Amar Upadhyay said that his so-called tiff with Ekta Kapoor was exaggerated by the media as she offered him the role of Mihir again after 8-9 months, after Inder Kumar left the show. “When he left, she came back to me again. At that time, I was still shooting my films. I was still not ready for that. I thought if I go back again, there will still be date problems. I told her to wait 3-4 months but she was not ready to wait,” he recalled. To show the world that there were no problems between the two, Amar did many cameo appearances in Balaji shows. “Just to tell the world that we are okay,” he said. When asked if he regrets leaving the biggest show on Indian television at the peak of his career, Amar gave a resounding “no” and said such was his destiny.
Amar was recently seen in Anees Bazmee’s Bhool Bhualiyaa 2.
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