| Aye aye Sir |
| Mohnish Modi |
| Mumbai, June 18: We hate repeating ourselves,'' says Deeya Singh. So post their last success with the serial Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi, her production firm DJ's A Creative Unit, which she runs along with husband Tony, sat down to brainstorm. ''A military school captures everyone's imaginations with its adventure and romance. Who has forgotten Fauji? In fact, the series was the an inspiration for our next venture,'' she says. July 10 will then see Left Right Left , their latest venture, take off on SAB. And like Singh said, there should be little of the formula that does rounds with family dramas. Here, it's camouflages for costumes designed by Provogue, pre-shooting tutorials on drill and marchpast and a whole load of outdoors action. The serial is about six cadets—four boys and two girls—at the fictitious Kanchanjunga Military Academy (KMA) in Ambala, Punjab. Its story revolves around their trysts in keeping up with KMA's rules and regulations and their personal struggles. For the viewers it also seems to mean a refreshing line-up of some new faces. Among the guys, Vikas Manaktala is not entirely new to the camera. In fact, it was a few of his tele ad campaigns—Yamaha, Reid and Taylor, Nokia N70 among others—that got him noticed, and had a common friend introduce him to the makers of the serial. He plays Huda, the fun-loving flirt who adores his mother. ''I had been offered serials earlier but I preferred the idea of being in this teenage story,'' says the 25-year-old. Harshad Chopra left behind his role in Zee TV's Mamta to become the very modest and co-operative Ali. Arjun Bijlani's character Aalekh, the ''bindaas dude who really didn't want to be at KMA,'' also grapples with a drinking habit. Bijlani learnt his first TV lessons with cameos on a few television productions. For all those who will miss Varun from Remix, Kunal Kapoor who plays the character appears here as Yudi. He says, ''Yudi joins the academy to make a mark in life. He is physically unfit but is a genius with gadgets. Yet his odd ways leave him without friends until he joins KMA.'' Since KMA lets girls in too, there's TV anchor Priyanka Bassi playing Naina, the all-ambitious girl of today and and Ghazal Rai taking on the role of Pooja, ''the chirpy girl who wants to live out all her fantasies and dreams''. To help the six get into the mood, in May, the cast was put through a few days of basic training at Raigad Military School. The actual shoots didn't feel very different. Says Manaktala, ''We would be up early and start shooting by 7 am. Between shots we'd have only ten-minute breaks for water and some fruit.'' Set designer Neelabh Kapoor has created an academy ''worth Rs one crore'' in Film City and Powai's Chitra Studio where the cadets have been going through army-style rigours. There's been some fun as well. Says Bijlani, ''There was this scene where Kunal's character Yudi has to hug and kiss me. It was the funniest thing we have done so far. We just couldn't stop laughing.''For the rest of the cast there's Rajeev Khandewal as Captain Rajveer and Puneet Issar as Brigadier Chandok who owns KMA. As for the eternal fans of the Shahrukh Khan starrer-Fauji on Doordarshan, this may just feel like yesterday. |
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