Small screen starlets spangle tinseltown sky

Mumbai: Small screen stars are increasingly making entry into Bollywood.

Television actors Prachi Desai and Roshini Chopra have become the newbies at tinseltown.

Moving from the small screen to the big screen is one of toughest transitions to make and only a few have succeeded.

The coming months will see some established television actresses try their hand at going 70 mm.

Everyone's favourite bahu from the popular Hindi soap Kasam Se, Prachi debuts opposite Farhan Akhtar in Rock On and her co-star Roshni Chopra, will also be seen in Vikram Bhatt's next film Phir.

Small screen diva Shveta Salve will also make her feature debut in Darmesh Darshan's Bhavra.

So was this big move to big screen always a part of the plan?

Prachi says, "It was a dream come true to be an actor. I watched a lot of television, a lot of films when I was young. It never occured to me that.I only want to be a filmstar or a TV star. I wanted to be an actor. I got such a big role on TV which almost became a household name and through that I got to get into films"

"Actually I wasn’t even inclined to act or to do television. I got a lot of offers in the recent past. Normally you see that girls in their first film don’t have much to do other than to just run around trees or they are the glamorous element. What is interesting in Phir is it has got a lot of shades, a lot of scope and that what really attracted me to it," quipped Roshni.

Someone who made it big on television and bigger on film has been Shah Rukh Khan. A feat very few have been able to achieve.

Why do stars who start off on television and make a good enough debut in films eventually put their small screen ambitions on the back burner?

Prachi says, "I will never say that I would never go back to television because I don’t know what is going to happen. The future is not in my hands. All I can say is that I will work hard but if I don't do well, I have to go back to television."

Roshini retorted by saying, "No, I owe a lot to television, so it will always remain special to me. If you have the talent and if you have the spunk and the chutzpah, you don't have to mark it yourself in a certain why. I don't believe in that. I believe in a more causal approach to life. Do what you like, do it well, give it your best."