MUMBAI: Come 11 March, Sony Entertainment Television will add another 'K' serial- Balaji Telefilms' Kkehna Hai Kuch Mujhko - to their buffet of weekend shows.
The first episode of Kkehna... begins 12 March, while 11 March, courtesy Balaji's creative head Ekta Kapoor's belief in numerology, will usher in a curtain raiser.The new weekend soap Kkehna... will be aired Friday - Sunday at 8.30 pm. Balaji Telefilms' thriller Kya Haadsa Kya Haqeeqat which was originally a one-hour show from 8 - 9 pm, will now become a half-hour show from 8 - 8.30 pm in a new avtaar based on socio drama themes.
At the media briefing to announce the launch of the serial yesterday, Executive Vice President, Programming & Response, Tarun Katial, shared the spotlight with Ekta Kapoor and the main actors of the show- Pallavi Joshi and Kiran Karmarkar.
Katial began the proceedings by explaining that Kkehna... revolves around a female protagonist who devotes her entire life being a dutiful wife and doting mother.
Kapoor claimed that she had only two people in mind for the female protagonist's role- Pallavi Joshi and Shefali Chayya. "Pallavi said yes and I did not move on to Shefali. But if I had received a no from both of them, I would not have gone ahead with this show. The script demanded 30 plus ladies who are married and have a mature body language," she quipped.
Kapoor said that unlike her other serials, the germ of this serial did not originate from any particular experience but rather several instances in life which she sees as demeaning to a woman's prestige and honour. "Almost every day, I see girls who want to wear blue but do not-because their mother-in-law detests blue, girls who want to have a hair-cut but cannot- because their husband prefers them to have long hair... instances like these set me out to weave a plot around a woman who begins to question her identity and her biggest battle stems from her own family who begin to question her every move, her every thought, her every action. Their bottom line is: After all, why should a happily married woman and mother aspire to build a career of her own?"
Joshi (Reva Kapoor) and Karmarkar (Nishchay Kapoor), who play parents to four kids in the show, looked a perfect match for each other on the few clippings of the show that were shown. Said Joshi, "I quite identify with my role. After marriage and motherhood, I had stopped doing television for some time. I can understand the setting of a vacuum inside a woman if she is not occupied, devoting herself to only her family and not satisfying her desires. Mind well, there are no extra-marital relationships involved in this story."
Said Karmarkar who also stars in Balaji's Kahaani... , "I am not worried on how I will handle two Balaji shows from here on. It is their headache on where they want me and when. But yes, I am quite excited about this role. After a long time, I will not be playing a larger-than-life character. Om in Kahaani... is Ram (god), Nischay in Kkehna... is aam (normal person). I would not mind calling this character as MCP."
This serial was actually planned for Star Plus, nearly three years ago. Kapoor let this cat out of the bag when she said that she had given a pilot episode to Katial when he was in Star Plus (Katial, Star India's former senior vice-president, programming, content and communication, put in his papers in the first week of October last year, following his transfer to Star Asia's head office in Hong Kong).
Kapoor further revealed that Katial had suggested her that they would utilise it at the appropriate time.
Kapoor says, "Yes, I was waiting for the opportune time for such a subject. Those days, the over-the-top soaps were the only thing which were clicking. Today, those soaps still have a good market, but at the same time, the people have started opening doors to different kinds of stories. A similar thing is happening on the films' front as well, with the advent of cross-over and parallel cinema." However, on second thoughts, Kapoor hastened to add that the serial had been an open offer to all the other channels as well.
Other main cast of Kkehna ... includes Vivan Bhatena (Mukul), Nazneen Patel (Tanya), Nisha Lalwani (Nishi), Dev Kantawala (Vikrant), Jasbir Kaur (Indira Roy) and Surekha Sikri (Mrs Kapoor- Nischay's mother). Swapna Waghmare Joshi will don the director's hat and Mushtaq Shaikh has penned the script.
Till date, only four episodes of the show are ready as Pallavi Joshi said. So, apparently, a lot of work needs to be done quickly. Come 11 March and we will know whether this one from Balaji, originally meant for Star Plus, can please Katial as much as Balaji's Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and Kaahin To Hoga did when he held office in Star.
