'I've never watched a daily soap' - Zeenat Aman

- I've never watched a daily soap in my life," yesteryear actor Zeenat Aman confesses with a laugh. She has agreed to be a jury member for the first Big Television Awards this year, and now plans to catch up on all the action currently happening on the leading daily soaps.

"I've decided to pack in as many TV serial episodes from various shows in the next one month as possible. I want to be thorough and familiar with the latest in all the shows because that will help me give better and more informed inputs in the judging process."

Clean slate

Zeenat is happy she has no clue what these soaps are about. "Sometimes, when you know the show from close quarters, you can't make an objective decision. Here, I have a clean slate. I don't know anything about the shows. So, I don't think I'll have any bias while making a decision," she reasons.

"I've had no time to watch TV. I have two boys who also don't watch TV, and even if they do, it's not the Hindi serials. So, it's going to be a challenging job to figure which actor brings more to the table than the other, who makes his or her character more believable, and whose performance gets maximum audience interest," she reasons.

Launched by Dev Anand in Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971), Zeenat has been a jury member before, but for award shows that honour the finest in Hindi movies. This is her first stint as a jury member for a TV award show. "I'm not nervous or apprehensive. I'm just hoping that I remain focused and give my best to this job because I took it up thinking it's a territory I've never entered before. And I will be able to deliver as a judge," she explains.

Considering that her colleagues, Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan, are both on the small screen as game show anchors, doesn't she plan to make a comeback to TV too?

"No," says Zeenat, firmly. "I didn't do TV at all. I just judged a TV show that Ekta Kapoor produced a while ago, where my co-judges were Amrita Singh and Shabana Azmi. After that, there have been several offers, but I've refused all." She admits that raising two boys takes up all of her time, saying, "I have tonnes of responsibilities and am aware that I can't give it my 100 per cent in terms of time and energy. I'd rather sit back and enjoy the show."