Hiss story
The use of rubber snakes in an episode of Mamta leads to a big fight
Reena Thapar Kapoor
Zee TV is at war with one of its production houses. The channel's programming head is very upset with Shobhna Desai Productions for doing, what it calls, a 'shoddy job' in some episodes of Mamta. Last week the production house was suppose to shoot Mamta's dream scene sequence with lots of real snakes. However, scared of upsetting animal activists, the producer used rubber snakes. This apparently upset the channel no end. "We were ready to uplink the episode when I realised what they had done. The false snakes looked funny, and far from real. They should know that we're not making a mythological show. It's a soap and I think Shobhna Desai's team forgot that fact," says Aswini Yardi, Programming Head, Zee TV.
Ashwini says that such shoddy work reflects badly on the channel. "It looked ridiculous!" she fumes. "Later the producers did give me a lame excuse saying that they were afraid of being sued by PETA since using animals as props in films and shows is a crime."
But Ashwini was in no mood to buy the excuse. Furious, she took it up with the creative team of Mamta.
The director of the show, Aziz, says: "We're shooting for a daily soap. We can't afford to get into legal tangles. Using animals as props on a show is a crime and I was just trying to avoid the consequences that doing so would have on the show."
Aziz, however, does admit that the false snakes looked bad on screen. "But we had no choice. If Zee TV thinks that I'm at fault then I apologise," he says.
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