Article on Remix

Urban Legend

Shrishti Arya looks substantially pleased as she skims through TRP (Television Rating Points) figures on her laptop. The unmistakable air of confidence certainly comes from the success of her shows on television. Along with her brother Goldie Behl, she heads Rose Audio Visuals (RAV), the production house behind serials like Remix, Guns And Roses and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. The company is working on two new shows for Star One and some for Zee TV. Yet, she calls it a period of struggle. Here's the reasoning. "You can't stop thinking of making it big. You need to think of it constantly, else you'll become stagnant."

This enterprising lady studied Commercial Art for a while but eventually decided to follow in the footsteps of her father Ramesh Behl, producer of movies like Pukar (old), Kasme Vaade, Jawani Diwani and Basera, among others. Her association with television began with the stylish Lipstick on Zee TV. With a war between two media houses as the principal setting, it weaved in different kinds of relationships, office politics, the film industry, black magic and much more. Says Shrishti, "Goldie had just finished with the film Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai when Zee's ideation department got in touch with us. We thought television would be an interesting medium and Lipstick happened. It is closest to my heart… like one's first-born. Nothing can replace it!"

Since then, the production house has come to be associated with "the urban hip variety" of programming, though Shrishti shies away fromclassification under any genre. She declares, "A genre is basically a matter of perception. We hope to be good at everything." Currently, the feather in the cap is Remix on Star One. This one-hour daily soap set in a residential school called Maurya High, takes us into the lives of students – their highs and lows, friendships and rivalries, aspirations and idiosyncrasies. The four main characters here are Tia, Anvesha, Yuvi and Ranveer.

Remix enjoys popularity among teenagers and college students. In the past, there have been serials like Hip Hip Hurray and Just Mohabbat, catering to the same kind of audience. Shrishti states that they strive to be different but "there is no such thing as original art…everyone is inspired from life." Apparently, the channel was happy with the way RAV presented the kids on Jeet, a college-based show aired on Star Plus.

We are keen to know her stance on addressing issues like drug abuse and others through such a serial. "That point in life when you are 16-18 years old… things that you think are important are not necessarily so. Besides, in my limited experience, youth are not wastrels. The biggest problem is, parents. It is more of a generation gap."

She continues, "There are 13 kids and all hail from different backgrounds with their unique high and low points. Tia hasn't seen her mother. Sid wants to be like his friend Yuvi. With Avi, it's the problem of self-image. Varun feels he doesn't live up to his parents' expectations. This is a light show and even within that, we have touched upon sensitive issues."

Shrishti vouches for the camaraderie between her actors. Most of them are aged between 18 and 23. Since the majority of them haven't acted earlier, workshops were conducted to make them comfortable. The ones that are studying take time off for exams. Their characters have been modelled on people that the creative team has met or come across. For instance, Tia has similarities with Shrishti's eight-year-old niece Riya who used to talk about herself in the third person. A lot of slang colours the vocabulary of the characters, so much so that RAV has a Remix dictionary containing 200 such words.

Another show Shrishti is proud of is Guns And Roses, again on Star One. A romantic thriller based in Goa, it involves a complex play of love and vengeance – a woman ends up falling in love with the man she wanted to kill. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa on Zee TV is going through a revamp. The characters Chetan Ahuja and Deepankar Bhattacharya transform a ramshackle place into a classy cafe, encounter goons and take part in a conspiracy. Though it retains the basic premise of men making futile attempts to understand women, actor Mihir Mishra who played Aditya Ramachandran, is off the show. Gaurav Kapoor has been brought in to play a new character named Kabir.

As for her take on saas bahu sagas on television, Shrishti says, "If you don't like them, don't watch them. It's not fair to watch them and run them down. If they are still being aired, somebody is definitely watching." Try to beat that logic.

For the record, she has acted in a film titled Aisi Bhi Kya Jaldi Hai, a remake of The Father of the Bride but has no intention of going in front of the camera ever again. "I'm a married woman with a child too," she says and so Shrishti is happy handling the reins of production. By the end of 2005, the company will announce three films. Goldie may not necessarily direct all. As for the details, we'll have to wait. She refuses to part with more on this front but readily talks as we prod on about her mother-in-law Sulbha Arya, the talented actor now famous as Kal Ho Na Ho's 'Kantaben'.

She has no immediate plans of working with Sulbha and reveals, "It will have to be a mind-blowing role to even offer it to her. Everyone who works with her once, works with her again and again and she tells me the people she's working with, are wonderful." The adoration and respect shows on her face. No wonder Shrishti doesn't make soaps about warring saas bahus.

— Chintan