Hubahu, the twin dilemma on Sony Entertainment Television, is packing up.

High costs of production and corresponding low ratings are the primary reason for the series having to wind up as soon it completes 30 episodes on air. The seventeenth episode of the serial, being shot in Bangkok and Mumbai, will be telecast this week.

Producer Parvati Balgopalan admits that the high costs of production are primarily responsible for the serial's life cycle being clipped, but says that she had anyway planned to limit the serial to a compact 39 to 40 episodes to ensure better viewer interest.

Sources indicate the series cost upwards of half a million rupees an episode; something which Sony was willing to ante up, if the show developed stickiness and generated ratings. But with Hubhau's ratings not climbing northwards, Sony decided to pull the plug. The series stars Sandhya Mridul, Rajat Kapur and Aly Khan.

In an earlier interview to indiantelevision.com, Hubahu director Nupur Asthana had noted that a story doesn't hold beyond a point and one has to merely go through the chores in the latter episodes. "That is why I have planned out Hubahu only for 52 episodes", she had said.

Balgopalan says that she is still in talks with Sony on the exact date when the series will be wound up.


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