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Aditi Pratap is on cloud nine! The actor has just bagged two new shows - Twinkle Beauty Parlour and Risshton Ki Dorr. In both the shows, Aditi will play important characters central to the plot.

"In Twinkle...I play an army officer's wife who is from a small town. Her life is closely linked with Ranjana (Narayani Shastri). She will be part of the mystery and when her story is revealed, the show will see a thrilling twist," says an excited Aditi, refusing to divulge the name of her character.

Aditi's charcater will be seen on air from 29 May. The character will start off as a cameo, but it might end up being a full fledged character later on.

In Risshton..., Aditi will play Simran, an art director, who will be part of Anjuu Mahendroo and Raza Murad's family. " I have a very interesting charcater in the show. It has very nice shades and will be on air from the tenth episode,"says the actor.

Other than these two shows, the actor is also part of a very successful Zee show - Saat Phere. Ask her about that and the lady is all excited,"It is a big hit and I am so happy to be part of the show. It's very real and the best part is that it's well written!The team is great and deals with real issues...that's what makes it special,"says Aditi.

With three dailies already in her kitty, the lady is all set to take take on anither daily! "I want to work for 25-30 days a month! I can't sit at home!" sighs Aditi.

Way to go, girl!

Courtesy:anishma24

One has heard of shows going in for a revamp after a year or two , but then what's with Sab TV's Twinkle Beauty Parlour?Just after a month and a half after its launch, the show is being revamped already. And surprisingly the primetime show Twinkle..which was launched with much fanfare to replace MaahiVe, was in news not just for its unusual star cast but also for its offbeat storyline. Not just this

but as sources reveal the channel had gone ahead to promote the show with a huge 5 crores spent on the publicity of the show. But, the channel is now readying to get a new star cast and shift the focus from the lives of the middle class women in the downtown housing locality (Lajpat Nagar in Delhi) and focus only on the parlour and the new people in the show.

The old star cast is obviously very hurt. Rajev Paul who plays Smita's husband in the show thinks that the channel has been unprofessional and unethical. He said, "It's unfortunate but true that we had to leave the show and it's the channels decision but I am extremely hurt, though the show has been a learning experience for us. We were not told about the decision in advance and day before yesterday Smita and myself got a shock when we got our scenes which read that we had to leave for London. "

We found out that the entire cast and crew is reeling under the shock and is clueless.A rather furious Rajev said, "If the actors had walked out of a show, the channel would've sued the actors. I wish the channel had been more responsible and were courteous enough to give us a notice about the same in advance. Considering the show was going great guns and we have been getting a

tremendous response for the show, it simply reflects badly on the channel. Also, I took up the role as Shrishti is a dear friend of mine and I am sure she tried her best to retain us. I was happy to be a part of Twinkle... and its given me a standing in the market and I will always be there for Shrishti no matter what," points out Rajev Paul who declined a couple of offers before taking up Twinkle.

On a rather diplomatic role, Smita Bansal who plays a housewife in the serial

said, "It was the channels call and they wanted the entire cast to be changed. So, probably the show will be revamped and will go ahead with a different concept." Though people close to the actress told us that she too has been rather furious about the whole episode but then continued to say, 'It doesn't matter as these days alterations are common in every show besides I had a lovely experience shooting with the unit."

Simple Kaul who's currently shooting in Malaysia was told about the same by colleagues Maninee and Smita besides she also received a message from the production house.For now only Narayani is being retained while there's no clarity about the other characters played by Smita Bansal, Rajev Paul, Maninee Mishra and Simple Kaul.

When we queried the channel about the current revamp of Twinkle, Sab TV programming head, Priya Mishra had a different side to the story, "We are taking the story in a different direction and the focus has changed on the parlour and it won't be about the people in the parlour. We have retained everyone in the show and they will be revived back later in the show and this is the advantage of television. It's just that we have shifted the focus and if the actors think they are out of the show then they are simply not getting the point."

The channel is now in the process of finalising a fresh cast and the channel is rumoured to change into a younger profile soon with the launch of a few more shows.

Sab senior vice president and business head Vikas Bahl gave a totally different side to the story. He said, " We have a huge twist planned for the show. The parlour will be the centre stage and the other characters will keep fading in and fading out of the show besides we will have new characters coming in and we have planned this with the launch of our new show Left Right Left on 10 July."

But doesn't one see such changes in shows after a long period of time? To which he said, "Some of the characters might come back and some might not which will hurt the actors and the new ones will take precedence over the old characters and we have to keep giving such twists to keep the show fresh and give it a new flavour,"said Bahl.
While producer Shrishti Behl and directors Tamara Ranganathan and Swapna Waghmare Joshi were unavailable for comments. We only hope that the new star cast comes in with a longer expiry date...

Courtesy:anishma24

If I were to give an one line verdict on Twinkle Beauty Parlour, then I would say - 'Not quite there, but on its way!

' What I mean is that when it started out last week, I thought my favourite producer was going wrong somewhere....but as the show entered it's second week, there were clear indications that Shrishti Arya had tightened her reins. But despite this, the show has a long way to go but to give the director and producer credit - it's difficult to transform actors who are used to melodrama into artistes who can enact a situation without twitching their eyebrows!

TBP has a great theme, a never been done before story and artistes who have seldom been pitched against each other - all these originals give this show an edge to start with. Shrishti has surprised her critics and fans alike by casting 'mainstream leading ladies' as main protagonists and this again is a first for her. These 'mainstream leading ladies' are actors who are used to working within certain given parameters and TBP is not the run of the mill saas-bahu show, thus the stiffness, the stilted dialogue delievery and the odd body language to begin with. This is something that needs work on but the actors are looking and sounding more realistic as time passes by.

The show itself has a very irregular setup - based in Delhi with dysfunctional families, relationships that are still in the realm of the unexplored and characters that are not black or white, but grey. The city itself becomes the backdrop for the show and it's nuances have been intricately woven into the matrix - for example the middle class junta who want to climb up the social ladder, the wannabes who want to look good, (even if their accent is an instant give away to their middleclass upbringing) and the mothers whose only aim in life is to see their daughters married.

The beauty parlour stands tall amidst these diverse people- it's symbolic of what we can be, with the help of a little help; Narayani Shastri as Ranjana who is the proprietress of this enterprise looks a little out of place in her skirt teamed with back and shoulder revealing tops (more so in Delhi! The newsapers abound with such scary stories that it's difficult for me to imagine that any girl in that city still wears such outfits!), her skills as an actor too looked questionable in the beginning, but she has shown signs of emerging out of her shell and the mystery surrounding her like a cloak has just added to her appeal.

The one character that really made an impression from the word go is Sulbha Arya and there should not be any surprises there - she is naughty, she is talkative, she's inquisitive and she's affectionate, a spledid combination!

Maninee is yet to come out of her Pari image although she is trying her very best to adapt a serious and stern look. But frankly the effort is showing on screen and that does not bode well for the show. Smita Bansal and Rajev Paul look ill at ease with kids who are old enough to be their siblings, but somehow Smita's character (not her look) talks and feels like some aunt we know...there's something in the way that the role has been etched out that she is very endearing.

The canvas of TBP is huge! There are different tracks running simultaneously and each one is central to the theme - it's a humungous task to keep the tracks going at a good pace and at the same time manage to keep the main story in perspective. The show has a very colourful palate...sometimes there is just too much colour.

The title track is good...one of the better ones that I have seen in recent times....but quite frankly, after the title song of Remix...the production house has another hit on their hands.

All in all, TBP is watchable because it's got the perfect mix of drama, humour and mystery - and as it usually is with all Shrishti shows, you either like it, or you don't, but you can't ignore it!

Courtesy:anishma24