Article-Ekta basks in supernatural

Probably she revisited her early days as producer which also includes a weekend horror-cum-paranormal show called Kya Haadsa Kya Haqeeqat and thought of revisiting the genre. Ironically, while till a year ago Ekta never got tired of talking about the magic of her saas-bahu formula, today she is quite upbeat about her supernatural show Koi Aane Ko Hai which was launched as a weekend bi-weekly three months ago on Colors. The show got a decent opening and thanks to its steady performance, it's being made into a tri-weekly from this week. Planned as a mini-series of 52 episodes spread over six months, each story runs into 10 to 12 episodes and deals with real-life cases of supernatural stories and also contains elements of soap and family drama. Having done with two stories, the show enters the third this week. Called Gulmohar, it deals with the travails of a young girl called Niharika who is possessed by a spirit when she visits her grandparents' village in Bhavnagar.

Ekta says that she did not watch IPL but knows for sure that Lalit Modi's cricket carnival in South Africa affected her show's ratings. She waited for the IPL to get over to launch Niharika. "I love this show. Of course a thinking mind will question the paranormal but the best thing about the supernatural is to make people believe what they disbelieve," she observes. Ekta is indeed a master in the game of making some of the most unbelievable things credible. She did it for nearly eight years without resorting to paranormal. Today she is doing it with the help of the supernatural to score a few TRP points. She is perfectly happy with the show's ratings which hover between 2 and 3 TVRs .

She has restructured the functioning of her production company. Sources in Balaji say that while earlier all shows were looked after by a GM with a handful of creative heads looking after two or three shows, today it is a different case with a vice-president as a overall supreme command and each show under one creative head. "There is better accountability now," say sources. Adds Ekta, "I have a fabulous team to take care of all creative and production decisions." However, she declines to give out any details about Balaji's future plans and forthcoming shows. "I have three shows coming in the near future. But I won't talk about them and restrict myself to only Koi Aane Ko Hai," she says. Quiz her whether it's easier making a paranormal show as compared to a daily soap, Ekta says that the two genres require different kind of storytelling technique. "Nothing is easy. Daily soaps are more narrative and character-driven but paranormal is more challenging because it requires better technical treatment," she signs off.

Source: ScreenIndia