My serial not based on Madhubala love life: produc

My serial not based on Madhubala love life: producer

New Delhi: Producer Saurabh Tewari has denied reports that his upcoming TV show 'Madhubala' is based on the alleged romance between veteran Dilip Kumar and legendary actress Madhubala.

"We were very clear in our communication from day one. The first promo starts from 1991, so neither Madhubala was born in 1991 nor she passed away then... And moreover there is no written fact that anything of that existed between the two (Madhubala and Dilip Kumar). Dilip saab is a living legend and we don't want to draw any controversy by defaming anyone.

"The moment we called it Madhubala, and it is about a girl who falls in love with a superstar there were these assumptions and we have been denying it through out," Saurabh told reporters.

Madhubala's sister Zahida also sent a notice to the show heads asking for a clarification on the serials subject.

"She sent a notice to Colors asking for clarification whether it is being based on Madhubala or not and I think the legal team has handled that, so no stress on that," Saurabh added.

The TV show is based on the reality of film fraternity and is dedicated to mark the completion of 100 years of Hindi cinema.

"Six-eight months back I and Prashant (programming head) were discussing what should be our next project then we realised in the month of May Indian cinema will be completing 100 years.. So we though of dedicating something to Indian cinema.

"But we cannot tell a story dedicated to Indian cinema through a TV show so we thought we will create a show which is based on the film industry, and move from the stereotypical, cliche way of portraying the industry," Saurabh said.

The show stars 'Geet' actress Drashti Dhami and Vivian Dsena. It will go on air on May 28.

On being asked how did they come up with the title 'Madhubala', Saurabh said, "We named the show 'Madhubala' 15 days back... We started writing it and initially debated that should we call it Meena Kumari or Madhuri... Then we started shooting episodes and still calling it various names but none of these names were giving that punch so we decided to name it 'Madhubala'."

The TV serial is set in the 90s and is about a girl who is born on the film sets and falls in love with a superstar named RK, played by Vivian.

PTI
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