Saba Mumtaz from being an AD to Writer and now a Producer!

Most of the time behind the camera talent is ignored as we are too much engrossed with the acting of the characters and loving the actors for their work which we see on-screen. However have we ever noticed the creativity of the person who comes up with these beautiful ideas in a daily soap?

Well, not really! We rarely praise the writer, producer, director or others who work behind the camera for their superb work. So today we decided to speak to the writer, Saba Mumtaz who is writing your favorite on-going shows Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Saraswatichandra. She has now also turned a producer for the upcoming show Ek Boond Ishq on Life OK.

This talented lady with her writing skills has given us viewers the much needed entertainment in our life with her shows. Soon we will get to see her as a producer too with the show Ek Boond Ishq which all set to go on floors soon. On the same we got in touch with Saba Mumtaz to know about her journey from being an assistant director to a writer to now a producer.

Saba who is good at multi-tasking shares her experience of working for the Indian Television industry, "Currently, I am writing the show Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Saraswatichandra on Star Plus along with that I am writing my show Ek boond Ishq as well as producing it. It is difficult to do so many things at a time but if you know how to manage your time well then I feel it is not much difficult. Earlier I was doing the screenplay and writing both for Yeh Rishta... and Saraswatichandra but now I am doing only writing."

She started her career as an assistant director, "Writing is a very solitary job and you are just at home and doing your work and mailing it to the channel. While I was doing my mass communication course in college I was trained in producing too. As my interest grew in that field I went ahead with producing and directing. I directed a film named Disha."

"Later I was going to assist many directors but somehow things did not work well. Also one of the stint that I did as an assistant director was not all that great experience."

The show Haqeeqat was the start of her journey as a writer, "At that time my friend was directing the show Haqeeqat and she said that why don't you try your hand at writing for this show. So I went ahead and things went good and I was enjoying too at the same time. Since it was a weekly show, there was not much of pressure too."

Saba says that writing a daily soap is different from weekly shows, "But well writing a weekly show is very different than writing for a daily soap. So I developed a concept for Aroona Irani who has been a mentor to me in this industry. I got to learn a lot from her."

Mitali Bhhatarchrya is the other writer cum producer from the television industry who helped her throughout in learning the language of the daily soap, "Mitali who is currently producing the show Gustakh Dil and the very well-known Shashi Summet Mittal who have been good friends of mine have taught me the art of writing. I was a writer earlier too but bringing in special elements which are needed in a daily soap such as drama, the dialogues and how to get in a twist in the tale was taught to me by them. It is then that I learnt the language of writing for a daily soap."

Producing a show was on her mind from a very long time, "From a long time I wanted to get into producing a daily soap but then things took its own time but now I am producing the show Ek Boond Ishq."

Ek Boond Ishq is a totally different concept from the other daily soap, "I am trying to portray a love story in a different way. So I managed to crack these wonderful three characters which are not seen on Indian television as yet. Our set is also very different from the other shows. We have used the film people to design the set and the costumes for the actors. This will give a different kind of look and vision."

Her effort is to shift television to another level with her show Ek Boond Ishq, "It is a small effort to shift television from what it is right now to another level. So also our writing style for this show is a little different from the normal daily soap. It does not look very dramatic; it is very casual like what we talk with our friends, brother, sisters or any other person."

"I have put in a lot of efforts to come up with this show and I hope it does great and the viewers enjoy this show" signs off Saba.