After headlining some of television’s longest-running daily soaps, Smita Bansal is ready to turn the page. The actor, who will next be seen in an upcoming finite television series, says she consciously chose to move away from the familiar world of saas-bahu dramas, looking instead for stories and characters that challenge her creatively. Speaking to HT City, Bansal admits that after years of playing mothers and mothers-in-law, she had reached a stage where she was eager to break free from the image television had created for her. While she understands why actors often get boxed into familiar roles, she believes the industry’s tendency to “play safe” often comes at the cost of creative exploration. Smita Bansal on choosing finite TV over daily soaps: Television has very similar plots and characters “Everyone wants to play safe. Once audiences have loved you in a particular character, people become unsure whether they’ll accept you doing something different. That becomes a challenge because you keep getting repeated in similar kinds of roles,” she says, adding that she was consciously …