Gul's new IV.

You are also a director along with being a producer. So how do you balance between what's demanded and what you wish to make in the commercial setup?

Right now, I am in a happy space. The shows are working well and I am creatively satisfied. But sometimes the balancing becomes very difficult. We want to try different genres, but the harsh reality is that we are a daily soap nation. India and Indonesia are the only nations that have such formats. When we talk about western shows like Game Of Thrones (GOT), they make only 13 episodes, while we go on and on with a show. That is one of the major reasons for the difference in quality that you see. We had tried that with our web series, 'Tanhaiyaan'.

Currently, with the new boom in digital space, do you think your target audience has changed and you have to make tweaks to cater to both digital and BARC audience?

The online audience is very limited as a lot of people don't understand this concept much yet. And what still counts is BARC ratings as that's what distributors make a count of and that's the criteria for makers to do well. So digital is very irrelevant because it doesn't count. We don't earn anything extra because Ishqbaaaz is topping the charts on Hotstar. We have to perform on BARC. Maybe eventually it (Hotstar) will count after a few years, but as of now, we can't focus on it until it is translating into money.

But, doesn't digital give you a better audience reach?

They are not the audience since they are not counted in the ratings. They don't watch it on television timings. They watch it on personal devices, now whether they liked or disliked the content, does not contribute to the ratings. We are not making shows for the digital audience, we are making the shows for BARC audience and we are very clear.

For example, we started Ishqbaaz with a very 'Dil Chahta Hai' feel...like there was this Mallika track, the bromance track where the three brothers would cook together and talk about women in their lives. While people online went gaga over it, Star Plus told us that if we did not cross a certain rating, they will shut the show. So while everyone was thoroughly enjoying the whole story line, the show was on the verge of shutting down. That's the level of disconnect between online and television audience. BARC is the only criteria for a show's success.

Do you think that success should be focused only on BARC ratings, or will it eventually widen to other platforms?

I don't think that will happen anytime soon in India. Star shares a lot of data. And as per that data, BARC is going progressively interior. They are facing a problem with paid channel. So, people in India have a problem with paid content. And till they do not pay and watch, digital will never work. People are used to watching free Television, so that is a huge roadblock for us to get into that space.

You came up with the concept of a spin-off for Ishqbaaz. That's completely new to the space. How did you think of that?

I had an idea of making a spin-off and we wanted to make it on Hotstar. We spoke to the broadcaster for a slot on Hotstar, to do another brother's story. So Gaurav Banerjee and Anita from Star replied and told us that we could do it, but they wanted it for the channel instead.

What are the key components of your story telling?

There is a mix of many factors. First, it has to be emotional and there has to be relatability. If it is not relatable, nobody will come and watch. The story has to be interesting and the characters have to lovable. Actually, the character is the key. We struggle the most for a character. The most amount of hard work goes into making the character lovable.

Was that the reason for a spin-off?

Yes, because the characters were so edgy and there was so much more story to tell.

So are you going to come up with something for the third brother as well?

Yes, we are soon going to highlight Rudra's life as well. The tracks around him will soon begin.