Sunita Toraskar (42) from Thane sits under a tent-like contraption peering at the stream of 22-year-olds in sequinned ensembles and gelled hair, queuing up to submit their snaps.This housewife’s dreams of her daughter becoming a future Kkusum are concrete. ‘‘We spent Rs 10,000 to get her a portfolio. I am willing to do all it takes to get her on TV, especially an Ekta Kapoor serial,” she says.Hidden in the foliage of Aarey Colony in Goregaon at Sankraman Studios, Balaji Telefilms staff are on one more of their marathon auditions where the lucky hundreds screen tested will belong to a database. An audition bank from which the likes of Ekta Kapoor will defrost ‘fresh’ faces for new characters. The roster has over 1,200 signatures in the past day and a half alone.The majority of debutantes in here are cell-phone toting college brats. The fifty-odd women who have turned up are more prepared than most of the men. Many of them already have work experience. Like Divya Sharma from Delhi who has already played the role of an air hostess, “the other woman” in a Balaji show, Kamal. Or Manasvi Mistry, a theatre freak who plays a patient in Sanjeevani. Manasvi has her make-up and her outfit on — ready to shoot even before she gets her dialogue sheet. ‘‘ All of us who already have experience are vying for lead roles that would catapult us to fame. Here, it is all about the look.”A grave ideology that Ronak Shah, 21, who played a bit role in Chandni Bar, adheres to a fault. As also Aman Sharma. While the yuppies are chatting, Aman interacts with his dialogue sheet, conscious of his modulation, posture and diction. Unfortunately for him, the casting people look more reverently at a blue-eyed college boy in a spandex shirt.
