Everyone who religiously follows romantic television shows will be familiar with the characters like Madhubala-Rishab Kundra from Madhubala and Parvati-Rudra fromRangrasiya. But very few are familiar with Saurabh Tewari, the hand and brains behind these successful shows. Tewari does not let his creativity take a backseat, so within a few months after his last show ended, he is back with his forthcoming show Phir Bhi Na Mane...Badtameez Dil on Star Plus, complete with a fresh cast.
He and his crew worked out on two stories, one for the 35 plus audience and another for the younger generation. "We worked on the individual stories for a few months and then we merged them both together. And then it became a journey of the central characters from the time they are in college till when they are 30," he said.
The show is driven by music and Tewari explained that it was a very conscious decision that he took to make music the crux of the show. "We decided to base the show on music because in some point in life it has influenced everybody. We had to use a kind of music which will find an audience in both the generations," he pointed out. The real challenge that he had to face was to come up with unique compositions for his unique script. He added, "We realised that for the show we could not use film music because then the authenticity of the script will be lost." The creative team, after a lot of research, decided to base the melodies and the tunes of the show on the compositions of RD Burman. "The musicians have composed a bunch of tracks on the music of Panchamda which have that youthful 70s vibe with a lot of melody. Although the instrumentations are different," said the producer.
It is no co incidence that all shows, exploring the different dimensions of love, that he has produced or been a part of have had limited number of episodes. Tewari believes that "love stories are finite." He shared the story of his previous shows, "We wrapped up Rangrasiya in 10 months. Madhubala was around 500 episodes but the good content of the story was concentrated only in the first 300 episodes. You cannot extend a love story on screen for more than 350 episodes. You can try and fool the audience with another 50 to 60 episodes but ultimately it will stop itself."
With over 15 years of experience working in the television industry he was able to explain to us the reason why successful shows continue to run endlessly. "Every industry has a different environment and a socio-economic structure," he said and added, "When we make a daily soap, there are a minimum of 200 people working on it, 90 per cent of who are set workers. Our industry is so unorganised that when a successful show goes off air, these people are jobless, until that producer starts a new project. For instance, my last show ended in October last year and this show went on the floors in March. So for all these months, people who were freelancers had no work. That is exactly the reason why, when a show is receiving good TRPs, makers and producers do not stop it. In some way or the other, everybody is getting something out of it " the channel, the makers, the crew and the actors. But when the show stops, the workers are the most affected. And most of the fight in the industry is on the issue of organising the set up."
Tewari is happy that there is a visible change in the viewing pattern today and is glad that people are opening up to the concept of breaking a TV show into seasons, like the West. But he is also quick to add where we fall behind. "The only reason why we cannot imitate the pattern of the West is because the attention span of the Indian audience is very short. Even in the West, there are only a number of people who watch the shows on television; they sample it online or on Netflix. The medium of viewing has changed. Appointment viewing does not happen in India and the alternate medium is still in its developing stage. A show here is developed by the word of mouth. So if I make a 16 episode series, it will end by the time he comes to know of it. Right now we are not equipped as a country but we are improving. People are watching shows on Hotstar. Eight years ago shows on limited episodes were not made. Today at least there is an attempt. People are sitting and discussing. I believe it is appositive change that has come about but it will still take time," he elaborated.
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