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Changing tracks...
Makers of CID venture into the non-thriller territory for the first time
Subhash K Jha
CID producer B.P. Singh is all set to move into unfamiliar territory. Associated with thrillers in the past, Singh has soaps on his new agenda.
However, Singh claims that Akela will be a soap with a difference. "Akela mixes the soap format with a supernatural element. It should be interesting. We're trying very hard to move into other areas. Thrillers are very hard to do and very expensive,"Singh says.
Elaborating about the show, he says, "Akela deals with a cop who is shot on the day of his engagement and remains in coma for years. It's the story of how the world has moved on while he has been sleeping. Sudhanshu Pande plays the lead."
Earlier Rajiv Khandelwal was roped in to play the pivotal part. "Unfortunately that didn't work out. Sudhanshu suits the character to perfection," says Singh.
The show will have expensive special effects including the hero's dead cop-partner as a ghost.
Akela will be telecast every Monday from July 4 onwards. "I wish we could get the daily slot. But we've too many things going on."
Other than Akela, the biggest happening in BP Singh's company is a special segment of CID that has gone into the Guinness Book of 2006. "It was telecast as a feature film on Sony. It got a TRP rating of 4.5. It cost about 42 lakhs. We did live rehearsals for a week. 170 people were involved in the making of the film that took eight days to make."
The special episode will now be released as a feature film in theatres across the country. "The entire two-hour film was done in one take. Since I passed out from the Film and Television Institute I wanted to do something entirely innovative."
• We're trying very hard to move into other areas. Thrillers are very hard to do and very expensive — BP Singh
