Waiting for the wedding-SS

Waiting for the wedding


Solhah Singaar on Sahara One is one of the most progressive serials to go on air in recent times. Dealing with the sensitive issue of widow-remarriage, the serial is also steadily becoming popular with the masses. We decided to catch up with the actors and find out how they are faring.... Metaphorically speaking, the Aarey Milk Colony road in Goregaon acts as the great divider between two kinds of television entertainment that private satellite channels offer. On the one side, Sankaraman Studios is sort of a factory where Ekta Kapoor's K-soaps are produced that entertains middle and lower-middle class India in cable and satellite homes and delivers eyeballs. And on the other side of the road, is Space Studio which is a shooting floor for SaharaOne's Solhah Singaar that deals with the centuries-old contentious issue of widow remarriage. It is not that the producer of Solhah Singaar is not in the business of eyeballs and high revenue for his channel. In fact, he is. But his show is definitely - if not very distinctly - different from Ekta's shows. At least at the content level, that is. Solhah Singaar definitely stands out in terms of its story, treatment and making if not in TRPs. "Rolling," we hear as we step into the studio's shooting floor. Mrinal Kulkarni, Waqar Sheikh, Akangsha Rawat, Karan Singh, Shalini Kapoor and a few more actors are in the middle of a scene that deals with Meera requesting her grandmother to give permission to Alaknanda to paint colours in her white saree by marrying her brother-in-law Shantanu. Widow remarriage goes against the tradition of the conservative society of Varanasi and Bhardwaj family. But it is Meera's dream to see her widowed mother blooming in marital bliss with Shontanu chachu. Grandma not only has to face the conservative society outside her home but also fight the internal forces in the family that are against the marriage. She however, listens to her heart and promises Meera that Alaknanda and Shontanu will be allowed to get married soon. While the wedding of two widowed members of the Bhardwaj family will be an awaited event, we catch up with Waqar Sheikh who plays Shontanu in the serial. This is Waqar's comeback show on the tube after a one-and-half-year sabbatical. "I come to Varanasi from London to immerse my wife's ashes in the Ganga. There I meet Meera and I see Alaknanda in her. And then through a flashback it is revealed that Shontanu and Alaknanda were lovers but because of certain circumstances she married my younger brother Kumar who died in the third episode of the show. Now the story has reached the point where everyone has come to know that Shontanu and Alaknanda were in love with each other but had sacrificed their love for the good of their own families. And now that both are widowers with grown-up kids, it is Meera's wish to see her mother married to Shontanu chachu," explains Waqar who has returned to television with a new look. "I lost weight and got a new hairstyle," he smiles. The reason for taking a long break from serials is that he was bored with monotony. "Till 2004, I was shooting 30 days a month and had one serial each on all leading channels. Gradually, I reduced my work and when one show after the other wound up I didn't take up new serials," says Waqar. He feels that after working for 11 years and having done more than 40 serials he needed time to think about the kind of work he should do in future. During the break he did theatre, a few commercials and two off-beat films, Koi Gwala Nahi and Manzar. Among the TV offers he got he chose to do Solah Singaar for his return on the small screen because it's the kind of serial that he wanted to do for his comeback. "The way it's been written, the director's approach and execution make it a far more realistic show than what we have today on air," he adds.

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If it's a perfect show for Waqar it's the same with Mrinal as well who was not too keen on taking up a daily after doing Avantika for over four years. "I am really charged up about playing the role because Alaknanda is the meatiest character in the serial. The first thing I liked about this serial is its one line - 'how a daughter gets her mother remarried'. Usually when you are offered a daily you only get to know a rough idea about the story and your character. It's for the frst time that I got to know the complete story of the serial, which is full of twists and turns. Even the character's graph is so happening that it's surely going to surprise viewers. Besides, the character is very progressive in her thinking despite the serial's traditional backdrop," elaborates Mrinal who can't hide her excitement. "I am really on a high," she continues. Besides, the serial, the other reason is that for the last one-and-a-half years, she's kept herself busy with four films, three Marathi and one Marathi-English bilingual. "Of the four films, Amol Palekar's Quest was the most exciting one because it was too close to life and was made quite differently," says Mrinal. If Quest made waves in international film festivals, Bayo was screened in the Indian panorama of this year's International Film Festival of India in Goa in November end. "I felt really great," smiles Mrinal who recently turned producer with a travel show called Happy Journey which she is also anchoring. Back from a recent shoot in Egypt for the show, she is again visiting the North African country famous for its pyramids because she couldn't complete the shoot in one week. "I had to rush back to Mumbai to shoot for Solhah Singaar. Egypt is a vast country. There are a lot of places still to be covered for the show. So I have to go there again for another ten days. And this time it will be both work and a holiday with my son Virajesh," she informs. It is holiday time for Akangsha Rawat as well. The model-turned-actor who plays Meera is headed to Bangkok for ten days with her parents. "I need this holiday to recharge myself," says Akangsha who is happy playing a character of her age in the serial. "Like most 19 and 20 years old girls, Meera is careless and thinks the world is only full happiness, till an unfortunate event in the family changes the course of her life completely," she elaborates. "In most serials young girls of my age are mostly playing bahu, mother or saas. Even if the character starts as a young married woman, she soon becomes mother and eventually mother-in-law. But Meera is different. She is young and she is not going to get married and become a mother so soon." But doesn't she have a love interest? "Yes it is there. Abhimanyu is the guy she is in love with. But I don't see marriage happening for at least six months to one year," she clarifies. For Akangsha, playing the main protagonist in her debut serial is not an easy job. "It has already brought in lot of expectations and pressure. When I see my pictures in newspapers and hoardings I get a little scared. But I am learning to handle it all," she grins. Smile is writ large on director Pawan Kumar's face too. He is happy that his show stands out in the clutter of saas-bahu dramas. "May be it's not a big hit like other shows.

But it's being talked about. People are appreciating it," says Kumar who is also directing Zee's Dulhann.... "I give 15 days each to both the shows." In his absence his assistants handle one show while he is busy with the other. What makes him happy is the fact that Dulhann... is also getting positive feedback as well TRP numbers. Kumar is of the view that a director gets lot of opportunity to experiment with new things at the beginning of the show. "Once the show settles down then it becomes more of a routine job. Roz Khana pakane ka kaam ho jata hai," he laughs.

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