Sameer Dharmadhikari in Contiloe's Rani Lakshmi Bai...

The historical show on the life of Jhansi Ki Rani which was to launch on Zee TV has switched hands, and in comes Contiloe to produce the show in place of Innovative 9.  The show produced by Contiloe is tentatively titled 'Rani Lakshmi Bai' and as per our sources, Sameer Dharmadhikari who was earlier seen playing the lead in Main Teri Parchain Hoon will play the make lead in the show.

According to our source, "He will be playing the role of the Maharaja of Jhansi, Gangadhar Rao, who was the husband of Rani Lakshmi Bai".

Though the channel Zee TV opted for Contiloe to produce this magnum opus venture for them, the title of 'Jhansi Ki Rani' and the script is registered with the earlier producers, Innovative 9. Hence, the Contiloe show will launch with a new title which has not been finalized yet.

Confirming this, Abhimanyu Singh of Contiloe says, "We are still thinking about the title though we have tentatively named it Rani Lakshmi Bai.  Our show will air on Zee TV".

We talked to the earlier Producer Chandan Singh of Innovative 9, who expressed his displeasure saying, "The channel has given my show to Contiloe. They are threatening our artists to be part of the Contiloe show, stating that they will blacklist them otherwise".

"I haven't told my artists that we are not producing the show any more or they can go and do other projects. The artists have the contract with us and not the channel. They have asked the channel to get an NOC from us", he adds further.

When asked whether his venture is still on, the producer replies, "Of course my project will take place. I have invested 9 crore rupees in it and the shoot will start again in the third week of May. Above all, the script and title has been registered by us, so legally there is no chance of two shows airing with the same title".

While Zee has given a clean chit to Contiloe, Innovative 9 is pitching their show to other channels now!!

Let's see what future has in store for the two projects…

Reporter: Ranjini Nair, Rachana Trivedi
Author: Rachana Trivedi