“Rani is addicted to Devon ke Dev. Mahadev!”

Says Rani Mukherjee’s real life bhabhi, Jyoti Mukherjee who is happy with the positive response she got for her cameo in the show.

Jyoti Mukherjee cannot control her happiness as she talks about the response she has got for her cameo in Devon ke Dev. Mahadev on Life Ok. She now plans to do at least one show in a month.

The cameo in Mahadev was just to test the waters she says as she makes a concrete decision to get back to her first love which is acting, “I have been away from the industry for the past eight years but still I would get at least one offer every month which I would promptly avoid since they would either be replacements or lengthy roles… but this one was supposed to be only couple of days of work so I gave a go-ahead. Also, I wanted to see whether I can do at least this much first before taking a plunge back into acting.”

While she was away, Jyoti was busy being a full time mommy to her kids – seven year old Myeisha and four year old Viaan, “I am a hands-on mummy, taking care of their daily needs, doing the pick-up, drop and everything else. They were used to me being around all the time for them so it was a difficult decision for me to make.”

Her children had never seen her acting so it was a different experience for them too. “My daughter, Myeisha was an angel. She was so supportive and excited for me. She had always seen only her bua (Rani Mukherjee) on screen and wanted to see me act too, whereas my son was least bothered! I even took Viaan to the sets once but he didn’t like what I was doing and kept on insisting that I come out of my get-up, remove the make-up and go home with him. Even when the episode aired he didn’t care much… as long his mom was sitting next to him, nothing else matters!” says the doting mother of two.

And how was her own experience? Did she find any changes while shooting? “The major change I thought was that everything is so TRP driven these days and thus a last minute job. There are no script or screenplay banks to know where the story is heading towards. The tracks change every day as per the TRPs. Otherwise rest all is same… the people around are the same and the timings are still erratic!” laughs Jyoti.

Jyoti who has played the role of Riddhi-Siddhi’s mother in Devon ke Dev. Mahadev might be seen again whenever the story requires her character to come back, “I will be seen whenever the story demands, till then I am back to my happy family life” says Jyoti who is also happy with the response she got, “I am totally over whelmed with the amazing response I got for this. Almost everyone I know called, messaged and was happy for me. It feels great to be loved so much.”

So does this mean we will see Jyoti back on TV soon? Has she got any exciting offers? “Yes, I have got couple of offers but I have so far not given a go-ahead to any. One of the offers needed me to shoot out of Mumbai for 20 days in a month which I was not ready for, so nothing as of now!” Jyoti says going by the trend she too is open to do roles where she has to play a mother to the main lead, “There is no age criteria on Television anymore. We see even 20-25 year old girls playing the role of a mother so for me who is a mother in real life too, I will never hesitate taking up that kind of role as long as the character is interesting and the story is appealing.”

Jyoti has earlier acted in her husband’s (Raja Mukherjee) serial Prratima when he used to have his own production house. However the couple is not keen to re-start it, “Raja is into direction now and quite happy to do that much and come back home. He has recently directed Pavitra Rishta and Bade Acche Lagter Hain but that’s it” says Jyoti.

All these years Jyoti who is a qualified designer also developed a brand name for her kids clothes designer wear, “I started with retailing at a small outlet but then exhibitions happened and I have participated in various exhibitions all over India. Now, my clientele has grown and I am dealing directly with them.” She however does not have any ambitions to make this business expand! Her plans are to work at a pace which makes it easy for her to give time to her family and especially her kids which are her priority now, “I am happy to keep my designing business at this level since now I am shifting my focus to my old work too. I don’t want to do any juggling whether it is my business or my work as an actor. I will be happy doing one show and give 15-20 days in a month to shooting so that I give 10 days of quality time for my kids.”

Her family which has been part of the entertainment industry has been her biggest support says Jyoti, “My husband Raja has always been supportive in whatever I have done so far. In fact, after my son was born he used to wonder what kept me away from acting. He was in fact waiting for me to get back to acting and was indeed very happy to see me take this up.”

Even her famous sister-in-law Rani Mukherjee jumped when she got to know that Jyoti was offered Mahadev, “Rani loves the serial Devon ke Dev. Mahadev… so much so that she is addicted to it! She has to watch it daily and if she misses than we have to record it for her, she is such a big fan of the show! So when I told her about this offer she was like ‘paanch din ho ya do din ka kaam, just do it’! Even otherwise she has always been a huge support… whether it was me working as an actor earlier or when I wanted to quit acting and be at home or now when I want to make a comeback” concludes Jyoti who is obviously one lucky lady.