| By Alok Hisaria |
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"The ambience, facilities, comfort level and hygiene is very important for the unit members. We have appointed two doctors who are available day and night for them. They are just five minutes away from our main set. If the situation is very bad then we can't do anything. Ultimately we have to change the story-line, script and scenes", says Jay Mehta who is currently producing two daily soaps, Sindoor-Tere Naam Ka and Solhahh Singaar. Another producer Sheel Kumar who has Mamta and Ek Ladki Anjaani Si on air feels that no matter what the situation is, the product has to be delivered. "To achieve that target, a lot of people have to go through stress. The work load is very intense," says Sheel Kumar adding that co-operation between unit members can help resolve such problems. "If one person is missing for an episode or so we can manage. It doesn't affect the TRPs. But the fluctuation is very minute. The situation becomes difficult when the period of his absence extends to a month or so. Then we have to think of replacing the artist," comments Rajesh Pavitran who is currently associated with Kaajjal as the chief operative officer. The lead heroine of Kaajjal, Surveen Chawla was absent for a couple of days owing to a family function in her hometown and a brief illness. "It is a difficult situation. Subtle changes have to be worked out in the script at the last moment. It does affect the basic story flow which had been discussed earlier," he says. Are the writers hit the hardest? "We are presently facing this problem with Saloni (Rajshri Thakur) being very ill. She is not even able to stand up on her feet. If one falls ill then the whole unit suffers. We have to make last minute changes in the screenplay, happen", says Usha Dixit, who is the dialogue writer for Saat Phere. But don't the TRPs of the show get affected by these last minute changes? "Viewers need drama. If the drama is intense and interesting than the episode can hold. I don't think much suffers if your main protagonist is missing for an episode or two," adds Usha. On the other hand producers like Sheel Kumar expectthe channel to deal with such issues. "TRPs, marketing and other things are for the channel to look upon. It's a very difficult job to run a channel. They have to keep in mind the viewer ship of their serials. The storyline and TRPs do get a little affected. But the writers and the channel creative team can minimise the effect by making the screenplay interesting," says Sheel Kumar. The dialogue writer is the one who gives the finishing touches to the script before it reaches its ultimate destination. Isn't it difficult for them to write dialogues at the last minute? "You think a lot can be played with the screenplay in terms of dialogues but you hardly have time to incorporate all the things in such a short period of time. Definitely the creativity suffers because of this situation," comments Usha Dixit. In the midst of the hectic TV schedules it is impossible to avoid such situations. But can't the industry be much more organised so that such situations are minimised? Rajesh Pavitran sounds very positive and optimistic. "It used to be very organised once upon a time. If there's a bank of screenplays it becomes easier for the director to execute the scenes," he says. Usha Dixit contradicts Rajesh Pavitran and feels that it's not possible to build a screenplay bank. "There's a lot of competition and the channel has to see whether the particular track is working or not. If the channel and the production house start thinking like wise we can keep a check on the problems and solve them," says Usha. (Sampurn) |
