The show, which went on air from May 28, is as filmy as it can get. The title of the show is a give away, named after Madhubala, one of the most enigmatic actors also remembered as the most beautiful woman of Hindi cinema. It captures the attractions, quirks, ugly side and ways of the film industry through the story of a young actress, played by Drashti Dhami. Often called "dreamland", every year Bollywood sees lakhs of aspirants flocking to it with the hope of getting a break in films. Some make it, others don't. Some are forced into it, others chance upon it, while few others are born into it. It is this essence of Bollywood, the magic of the arclights and the medium of cinema that has been captured on this show. "At Colors, we are always looking for shows which are out of the box. This time, we were looking for something, which was never shown on Indian television before," says Prashant Bhatt, fiction head, Colors.
The show is probably also one of the biggest TV shows in terms of execution. "The scale of the show is even bigger than certain films," says Bhatt. While they have shot the initial portions of the show at Ramoji Studios in Hyderabad, the shooting of other portions will continue at Film City in Mumbai. "Film City is the best place. It has all under one roof. And for a show like this we need huge sets which are easily available there."
Imitating typical Bollywood films, Madhubala dwells on cliches reminiscent of Bollywood in the '70s and '80s. The story begins in the rustic town of Motihari in the interiors of Bihar, where the birth of a girl child is condemned, especially in the Balraj Choudhary clan. The story shifts focus to the bustling city of Mumbai when Balraj's pregnant wife Padmini, who is expecting a girl child, flees to Mumbai in the fear that her child will be killed. As destiny would have it, she lands up at a film studio, starts working as a junior artiste. Her life takes a new turn. She gives birth to a girl child, named Madhubala.
Played by Drashti Dhami, the protagonist is a simple girl who grows up amidst the film industry, but isn't interested in facing the arclights. Rishi Kumar aka RK, played by Vivian D'Sena, an actor born into a film lineage and a superstar of today helps Madhubala become a star overnight. While the story revolves around these two, Dhami says that the serial is a tribute to everyone associated with the industry. "Madhubala is a tribute to the film fraternity, to people from the industry — actors, junior artistes, co-ordinators and technicians. It is an attempt to show how they are in real life and the range of emotions that they go through. It's about what happens behind-the-scenes, and not about just one person."
Shiv Shakti
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
