Wooing viewers with soaps

Star One has revamped its prime time band with 'Saathi Re' (Tuesday-Thursday, 8.30 pm) and 'Betiyaan Apni Yaa…Paraaya Dhan' (Tuesday-Thursday, 9 pm) from today. Star India senior creative director Shailaja Kejriwal says, "We are set to revamp prime-time viewing. Both these series boast a combination of intense family and social drama, which should appeal to a large section of the audience.

'Saathi Re' is the story of Suman, an ideal Indian girl. Suman is played by newcomer Parakh Madan and she has leading actors like Neena Gupta, Kiran Karmarkar, Arjun Punjj and Amir Dalvi, amongst others as co-stars. Her world is her small family with their middle class lifestyle and idiosyncrasies and it would have been a perfect world had it were not for her recurring nightmares.

And '..Paraaya Dhan' is a story of six daughters and a son born into a zamindar family. The father rebukes his daughters because for him they are a burden. Krishna, the eldest daughter and the protagonist, is based on Lord Krishna's character and personifies his depth of wisdom and breath of understanding. Gauri Nigudkar plays Krishna and it is a role of a simple, honest and principled girl who is the balancing factor amongst her sisters.

An expert Kathak dancer, Parakh is gung ho about her role, despite no professional training in acting. "I won the Savvy Covergirl contest in May and started getting offers when I appeared on the magazine's front cover. This character appealed to me and I am looking forward to see how I am received by the viewers. My co-stars are senior and experienced actors and I don't hesitate to take guidance from them," says Parakh.

Gauri has acted in a National Award winning Marathi film (2004) and has done a few commercials too. "It's a dream come true for me as I never thought I would be on TV. Playing Meera or Radha is believable but playing Krishna is awesome. There are many shades to the character and the story line is pleasant, full of laughter and colourful scenes rather than the usual teary scenes," smiles Gauri.

Star One was launched with the intention of targeting an upscale audience. Though innovative programming will be part of their strategy, it will also be showing generic stuff, as with time, they have realized that it is the only thing that works.

t_usha@dnaindia.net