A note from Gautam Hegde

Note from Gautam Hegde - writer of IPKKND:

CREATIVES CORNERED!

You may want to stop reading this if you, by now have decided to abhor the word CV. This is on behalf of everyone who comes under CV, that I decide to write. I dont know if its a futile exercise, but I would still make an attempt.

The way a show works is that the producer approaches the channel with a concept. The channel decides if... the show would work for the kind of audience they have, the kind of bouquet of shows they have, if it fits well in it. A research team from the channel works on finding if the show has a market out there. When all signs are positive, the show is commissioned.

The crew is assigned, the cast is decided and the show goes on floors. Picture is pretty so far. Now, the car is ready to leave the garage and hit the roads. As a viewer, you'd expect your car (show/ actors)- which is run by the driver (CVs from production house and channels) on the roads very smoothly. Sure enough, we like the ride that way too. But the ride may not always be smooth. It gets rocky, there are speed breakers, the roads are bad, there is work in progress, there is traffic, someone else is driving rashly and you need to go slow. Or worse, it pours and its just not in your hands.

We go through our challenges too.

Is Pyaar Ko is a romance, a Star One type of show, being tried on a Star Plus type of a platform, keeping in mind that we dont just want the youth, but also the slightly older generation to watch it with interest. If it was just for youth, we would have just kept it in office, made it more 'yo' but we are targetting a larger section.

A show like Is Pyar ko is difficult to write because it is different from the other kind of shows that you see. There are times when we work and we rework and we rework till we are satisfied. I guess that is how the show managed to get its fanbase that grew so much so that today they are fanatic when something goes wrong. But why could it be going wrong? Its always the CVs who are blamed, cursed, given cuss words for.

I mean, why?

We are as human, we tend to err as much as anyone else. And its not like we like to sabotage the show because the longer a show runs, the better it is for us- its our show, its our baby and its our anna-daata. We earn because of the hard work on it.

Hard work and CVs, someone may frown there. Yes, we have to create a bank so that the production plans things well. Because there can be actor availability problems, location availability problems, weather problems, just anything unforseen. There is very less time, some scenes take time to get shot, hence the editor doesnt get enough time, sometimes the daylight is getting over, and the director has to finish, he cannot shoot tomorrow because the schedule is planned some other way. But none of the 80 odd team members like mediocrity. What you see is the best possible way in which the episode could go on air given the constraints. People fall sick. Its not just poor Barun, poor Sanaya, there is poor editor, poor director, poor everyone who would fall sick and the performance may slack a bit because of that because we work beyond the permissible limits of body clocks.

We give you all 5 half hours of content every week. Thats almost the length of a movie. So basically we make a movie every week. We work daily, and wait, just when there is a breather, there is a maha episode, which means in that fortnight there is no breather as we have done Mon-Fri, then a one hour slot, then again a Mon-Fri. So there is no break.

Barun is doing a film. He is adjusting his weekends with us and whenever possible he can shoot with us. We write scripts according to that. We go back and forth, bend backwards because we know how much you all love ASR/Barun. We want to provide as much as we can manage.

If a terrace scene is not good, you all will blame the director and editor for a bad job. But poor actors they shot in the sun. Let me tell you that the directors, the production team, the lightmen, the spot boys, the cameraperson do not operate from AC vans. Everyone faces the heat. Trust us on one thing, what we give you is our best.

So a request, do not all the time trash CVs for a bad scene or a bad track. When a Khushi ASR scene moves you all, entertains you all, its not JUST Barun and Sanaya who have given a fab performance. Its the entire team effort. There are 9 posts on Barun and Sanaya and one post on CVs. But if something goes wrong, there will be a rampage of CV trashing, that even goes to the extent of 'CVs are trying to ruin the careers of the actors.' Like really! Next you all will imagine us dressed as komolika and playing with the latt of our hair!!

Bottomline- Its a creative process. Some ideas are good, some bad. Sometimes we HAVE to do a parallel track because we have to shoot two units and make sure twenty two minutes of content everyday is ready. We all go through the same problems as Barun and Sanaya and 'Arhi' and 'Payash' are as close to us as they are to you all. We try, we fall, we get up, try something new, because lets face it- everyone on the show has come with years of experience. Its just that sometimes things work, sometimes they dont.

You may feel why is this guy ranting so much. Why is he getting senti? Then, well, let me tell you if you are not senti as a person, you cannot be a creative person. I am attached to the show and take it seriously. So does the rest of my team.