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Jeete Hai Jiske Liye's new entry Yuvraj Malhotra is not just a good looking aspiring actor. The new kid on the block has already made his mark in the ad world and as we discovered has many more shades to his personality..

This Delhi boy started off two and a half years ago with press shoots, music videos and ads like Dhara refined oil, Lays, Chaat Street and Rejoice Shampoo. To put it in his own words, "I was trying for a good opportunity. A good platform to showcase my talent, I didn't want to do just anything," says Yuvraj What one cannot miss is his besotted look for Ayub Khan. "He is an amazing actor, and I just keep looking at him. He's so down to earth and the best part is that he treats me like a son. All of us new comers here are being treated like family."

Is he not afraid of being shadowed by the very big stars that he admires? "No, I do not encourage such fears. Since I play Ayub's son, viewers are bound to notice in all the frames."

So does this young, dynamic and single Tauruean in the city like to party just like his on-screen character? He gushes, "Yes, apart from acting I am into a lot of things, which includes parting. I can often be seen at Poison and Squeeze. I also love travelling across the country; right now I am exploring the city through and through! Yuvraj is an interior designer by profession; we wondered what inspired him to move into the field of acting? "It's in my blood. My dad was also a renowned actor; he was a part of Shahrukh Khan starred Fauji! Obviously, it was a hobby then but now it's a viable profession." Could one comfortably say that his dad encouraged him to join the profession, "one can very comfortably say that! He inspired me to what I am today!"

With the support from his family and the platform, lets hope Yuvraj needs little efforts to make his foundation unshakeable.

http://us.tellychakkar.com/y2k7/apr/30apr/news_yuvraj.php

Despite the disappointment on her comeback vehicle Jeete Hain Jiske Liye winding up before time, Renuka Shahane, the actor with that million-dollar smile, is happy about getting back to her children a la the protagonist Anjali in the serial.

"Yes," she says excitedly, "I will be back with my sons Shouryaman and Satyendra, who are in Sr.KG and nursery respectively. I missed going to their schools."

Her views about the show going off air, she feels, "It was a brilliant role and the range I got to portray as Anjali was out of the norm. I had to tax myself to go through the circumstances I dealt with as Anjali and I thoroughly enjoyed the phase. I feel dejected regarding the winding up."

Throwing more light on the reason for its premature death, she says, "Channel people say it's the production house while they pass it on to some other team. I am not into this blame game."

"I feel the brilliant starcast was not properly utilized, besides the story veered away from the main plot. We as actors are just puppets. Our duty is to act convincingly, however much the role may be unbelievable,"avers the actor who belongs to the industry for the past 20 years and made a come-back after a 5-year hiatus, and still managed to retain the position of the lead protagonist when lead actors much younger than her have reconciled themselves to playing mothers and character roles.

When queried about the reason for the show flopping inspite of a gripping story line, she says, "I have no regrets being a part of the show… as I met a wonderful set of production team and co-stars. I have never been enamoured by TRP ratings. I just enjoy acting and the fact that I got to play the main lead after a five year hiatus during times when people are relegated to character roles, was heartening by itself."

On doing another daily, Renuka confesses, "It will take a while for me to get back and the role has to be exciting enough, especially after playing Anjali." Meanwhile she's busy working on the script for a Marathi film and intends to take up direction for the same.

http://www.tellychakkar.com/y2k7/may/5may/news_renuka.php

Producers making shows for Sony are in for uncertain times. After launching Kulvaddhu with great fanfare in December last, producer Anuj Saxena was asked to shut the show in March. Karamchand, the slick detective show was revived in February and was expected to recreate the old magic of DD days on Sony. But Karamchand was also shown the door after 11 weeks.

Earlier B.P. Singh's Akela, a supernatural weekly soap, was axed within six months because of poor TRPs. And now Sony has asked producers Tony and Deeya Singh to bring down curtains on the much-publicised Jeete Hain Jiske Liye. Incidentally, both Jeete Hain and Durgesh Nandini were launched on the same day in February in the 10 to 11 pm band and were expected to fight the competition from Star Plus' Kahani... and Kyunki. While Durgesh which is also not doing too well, skipped the axe, Jeete Hain has got the stick.

Why is Sony shutting some shows within months without giving them adequate time to connect with viewers? "There are shows which have not done as well as we expected. Their TRPs have been poor. We have given them adequate time and have done whatever we could to improve their ratings. But they failed and we had to shut them and move on to new shows," says Sony's business head Albert Almeida, adding, "We are in the business of entertainment and ratings. If some shows don't turn out to be good business propositions we can't keep them on air."

Almeida says they believed in Jeete Hain as well as Kulvaddhu. "We thought they had enough potential to perform well. But they failed," he adds. However, sources in Sony say that Jeete Hain is being axed because the channel was not too happy with the show's content and execution.

"There were problems with the show and it was felt that the production house (which had produced the hit show Jassi for Sony) was not paying enough attention to Jeete Hain," say sources. While producers Tony and Deeya Singh are on a holiday abroad and couldn't be reached for their comments, Renuka Shahane, the show's protagonist who also made her come back on TV with Jeete Hain after a five-year sabbatical says, "It's too early to shut down the show. The real story has just begun after the generation leap two weeks ago. I think it had potential and should have been given some more time."

However, Renuka says the way things were going, Jeete Hain would not have delivered good ratings because the show lost its way right at the beginning. "It was supposed to be the story of a mother and her children but the focus went somewhere else. Things went out of control and the story lost its way. But I will definitely miss the show. It was like my third baby," she says.

However, it's not just soaps that are not doing well on Sony. In fact, in terms of ratings Sony's entire weekday prime time band is in a mess. Other shows like Durgesh, Ek Ladki Anjani Si and Thodi Khushi Thode Gham are also not doing too well but are on air for more than a year. "We believe that Ek Ladki and Thodi Khushi have potential to do well. We are in the process of rebuilding our prime time fiction band. It's a matter of time before we regain our position in fiction," says Almeida.

http://www.deccan.com