`All producers are cowards’

The response has been hot and cold, but Renuka does not rely on the rating systems. "Who are these people they ask? People come and meet me or call up. I get a lot of feedback. Only this way you get to know the audience’s pulse," she insists.

Meanwhile, Renuka is enjoying herself thoroughly and she isn’t doing the loud stuff she hates so much. The role offers her great variety. "Man one day, electrician the next or a princess, a poor girl … things you would not dream of in a normal soap," she says.

Renuka admits that Mrs Madhuri Dikshit is not different from other comedies. The situations are same, so are the lines. "Aisa kuch nahi hai, you can give it a miss if you want to. I won’t tom-tom it as a comedy a class apart,” she says,“That’s all hogwash. Doing something like Yes Minister or Wagle Ki Duniya would have been unique." Still, Renuka feels vibrant about the serial. "It has a gang of people managing their lives in a very innocent manner. You sympathise with the characters because they are so sweet and cute.

It is a pleasant serial and you get a laugh here and there," she adds. Renuka, in fact, believes that Indian comedies are in dire straits. With the exception of serials like Filmi Chakkar or Tu Tu Main Main, she thinks most are utter trash.

"Countdown shows mixed up with comedies are the most disgusting. Philips Top Ten is so boring — how can they have the audacity to even have a laugh track," she wonders.

Renuka holds the producers responsible: while the TV audience is mature and likes variety, the producers seem to believe that only cheap, loud comedies work.

"We decide that we are up here and the audience is down there. That they will not understand subtle comedy,” she rages,“Give them a chance! The makers just want to make horrible serials and sell them. All producers are cowards." So the cowards resort to the formula-that-always-works — situational comedies.

Verbal comedies need a lot of creativity and confidence in scripting, directing and editing. "But here, even if the dialogue is intrinsically funny, they spoil the effect by asking you to make contorted faces so that the audience `understands’ it!" Notwithstanding her feelings, Renuka has signed up for another comedy with Anant Mahadevan.

And what about the title of the present serial? It’s more than just a teaser. Makes marketing sense as well. "There are so many Dikshits and Madhuris all over the country," she says.

But while the serial claims to portray a woman of the nineties, it has Renuka in an apron, cooking food and doing other household chores. "She belongs to the nineties in her aspirations. She is educated and intelligent, but has chosen to be a housewife. The problems are the same as always, only the attitude has changed," argues the actress.

Renuka explains the changes in terms of the great generation gap, "When there was no appreciation for work done at home, my grandmother’s generation did not have the guts to say it, my mother’s generation did. Now we take it for granted — you better appreciate our work, dammit!" And some of the comic actors she appreciates are Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, Johnny Walker, Satish Shah, Sulbha Arya and Farouque Shaikh. "All great actors are versatile and can be good comedians," she asserts. With Mrs Madhuri Dikshit, Renuka Shahane is out to prove that she too fits snugly into that category.