GR8 article on Popular show Maayka/Shahi pic added

It has come from behind and now it is way ahead of many of the soaps being beamed on TV, today. A product of that time-tested content-maker, ?Creative Eye? of Dheeraj Kumar?s, Maayaka carries with it a strange history of topsy-turvy happenings since its very inception.

It was not always in the ?Creative Eye? basket. Actually, it was conceived and produced by Classic Films for Zee TV.
But soon enough, cracks started appearing in Classic Films? bonding with the channel. By and by, the acrimony touched such a note, that push came to shove and Zee decided to terminate the contract of the production.

However, at the same time they did not want Maayaka as a product to fritter away. They still hoped to rejuvenate it and reap its harvest. They still thought that it could deliver the knock-out punch to the competition, if only it could be recast and reinvented.

Hence, they looked around for someone to take over the reins of the beleaguered serial. It was during this time that their bonding with Dheeraj Kumar and his Creative eye was getting cemented as in the form of ?Betiyaan?, they were able to hold fort against the redoubtable, ?Kahani?? in the challenging spot of 10.00 pm.

As a natural corollary to that, they asked Dheeraj Kumar whether he would pick up the gauntlet of producing Maayaka for them from now on.

Always the one to take up challenges head-on, Dheeraj Kumar agreed to do that but only after all the ethical issues involved in the case were solved by the channel. The channel was anyway too eager to do that and the two moved towards a new liaison of remaking, refurbishing and rejuvenating Maayaka.

By this time, the cast of the serial, helmed by the veteran Sudhir Pandey, also had the whiff of what was cooking. Suddenly, they declared that they would not cut their umbilical cord with Classic Films.

This was a big spoke in the wheels of Zee?s scheme of things and they tried all the tactics of Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed to herd the cast back to the soap ? but in vain! The actors were adamant and all of them snapped their ties with the channel on this, barring an exception or two, like Neha (Bamb), the heroine and so on.

The biggest poser that stared in the face of the channel and the new production house was how to change the entire cast of a serial overnight. But this is where Dheeraj Kumar?s ingenuity came to the rescue and in a quickly rustled up a twist in the script, all the dissenting actors were bumped off in a bomb blast!

Wah, television?!

The long and short of it is that decks were cleared for Creative Eye to put Maayaka back on the rails.

for full article read GR8! TV MAG Aug issue 08