Yash Patnaik's Chehra on Star Plus..

A new soap thriller, Chehra is ready to take off on Star Plus soon. Produced by Yash Patnaik (the one-time associate of B P 'CID' Singh),it's directed by Rohit Dwivedi(who earlier directed Choona Hai Aasmaan). Written by Mamta Patnaik (Yash's wife), Yash says "The story is a nice blend of a soap with 'thriller' elements. I would say something like Kahin Kissi Roz. We have a great story in place, for one year at least, and we know we are set".

"Usually, after 20-odd episodes, you start fiddling with the story so we wanted to be completely ready with a good-enough story before we went on air", he adds.

Yash is secretive about the cast. "My lead pair is new though I can tell you, the girl who plays the protagonist is strong, full of life, knows her mind, isn't involved in kitchen politics and hence no issues with her saas. It's not your regular saas bahu story." Finally, he says he couldn't have called his show Kundali or something else… "I thought Chehra was a good title. The first thing you notice about a person is the face and yet the face can be a mask for something else, appearances are deceptive, aren't they?"

The show is slated to go soon on a prime time slot. 11 pm replacing Kayamath? "No, it could be earlier than that. We have yet to lock those details with the channel", he says further.

According to our sources, "The show was to launch on 27th February in the place of Arre Deewano Mujhe Pehchaano, but there seems to be a change in this. The time slot will be decided very soon".

The Patnaiks have started their own production house Beyond Dreams after working with B P Singh for 10 years. They have earlier produced shows like Babbanbhai V/s Bimlatai and are currently the people behind Monica Mogre Case Files on Zee TV.

Reporter and Author: Kshama Rao