'Rendezvous...' has kept me relevant: Simi Garewal

Veteran actor Simi Garewal is set to return with her celebrity chat show "Rendezvous with Simi Garewal" after over a decade and she believes it is one of the reasons why younger generation knows her.

The actor, who released all the five seasons of the show on her YouTube channel, said the recall value and the viewership of the old episodes pushed her to come up with a new season.

"I will give credit to my show 'Rendezvous' that has kept me relevant. It has broken all the record and it has got over 100 million views. It only shows people have loved the show. I don't think young people would recollect or know about my films.

"It is the 'Rendezvous...' and 'Desirable' show that has kept me in their mind," Garewal told PTI.

There have been reports about Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh to appear as first guests on the new season.

Garewal said she is hopeful that the star couple of Bollywood will make an appearance on her show.

"When I went to their wedding party and told them that I would want their first interview together for my show 'Rendezvous..'. They jumped at the idea and promised that they would do it. I am sure they will come on the show," she added.

The 71-year-old actor-host is also keen to have superstar Salman Khan as her guest this season.

"He fascinates me enough for me to do a show with him. I am sad that in my last few seasons whenever I wanted him to be there he couldn't come and when he was ready I wasn't available. Our dates did not work.

"But I am sure he is going to do a show on my new season. I count on him. I know I can bring his real side," she said.

Garewal said she would not give the copyright of her show to any of the popular streaming platforms or TV channels.

"I don't want to do it for Netflix or Amazon, don't want TV also because they all want my copyrights. I am not ready to do that. I am not giving away my property, not for any amount of money.

"For me copyright is important. I have got offers from the TV channel and digital platforms but they had demanded the copyright for posterity or for a few years I don't want it that way. I have been refusing to give my show," she said.

"Rendezvous..", written and directed by Garewal, was among the earliest celebrity chat shows on Indian television.

Some of the notable guests include the late Jayalalithaa, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, Mukesh and Neeta Ambani, Ratan Tata, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan, Rekha among others.

From all the five seasons, Garewal said she enjoyed interviewing Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, Jackie Chan, the late actor Dev Anand and the late Benazir Butto and Maharani Gayatri Devi the most.

"There will be a mix of every personality on the show. Hopefully, if I get enough episodes in a season then I will definitely interview people from business to politics to sports and films.

"I need to be fascinated with people otherwise I can't pick up my interest to do it. I should find it fascinating because then it becomes interesting to do the interview," Garewal said.

According to her, talks and discussions are on about the new season of "Rendezvous..." and hopefully it will begin this year.