With Navya winding up next week, Shaheer Sheikh, who played Anant in it, is planning to take a long break from acting. "I was cut off from my family and friends for one year. They feel I have changed completely because I didn't keep in touch with them. But that's really not the case. Shooting every day for 12 hours was too exhausting. I was left with no time to call anyone," he says. So, what is he planning to do next? "I will learn something new, maybe editing, direction or music composing," he says. What about acting? "Of course, I am open to it. But I need time to come out of the character Anant. I am very attached to him. The show was a big change for me. However, if something interesting comes my way and if it excites me I will consider it. But currently I need a break," he signs off.
It's curtains for Navya
It is common sense that channels don't retire popular shows. Why should they? However, Star Plus is known to do just the contrary. In November 2010, the channel brought down the curtains on Bidaai when it was still ranking among the channel's top five shows. In April last year, it took down Tere Liye, which had a TVR three rating and replaced it with Navya, a young love story set against the clash of old versus young values. If popularity is the deciding factor for continuing with a programme, then Navya wasn't a laggard. It took over from where Tere Liye left off, and has been rating around 2.5 to 3 TVR since it was launched. However, now Star Plus is axing this show too. The last episode of Navya will be aired on February 10.
Why is the show being pulled off the air when it is still performing well? Apparently, Star Plus believes that the 10 pm slot has a lot of potential and a new show could probably deliver higher ratings. Siddharth Tewari, producer of the show, says, "Perhaps a 2.5 plus rating is not good enough for them. However, the show is very popular with the youth."
Could the protagonists, Anant and Navya, getting married be the end of the storyline and that is the real reason the show is being pulled off the air? "No, the story is not over yet, in a daily soap it doesn't end so soon. It is sad that the show is ending." However, Star India's business head of Hindi channels, Nitin Vaidya, says that every story has a definite end to it and Navya's story reached that threshold. "With Navya's wedding and process of settling into Anant's family in its final week, the story will come to a point of logical culmination and definitive ending," he adds.
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