A fiercely independent lady, Shristi Arya never believed in taking life easy. Even as a young girl of 15, she took up a marketing job to get some pocket money. Arya has been in the industry for over 16 years now, and her production house Rose Movies has finally come of age with its shift to television software from films.

Along with her brother Goldie Behl, Arya took up the responsibility of their father's production house after his sudden demise in 1990. Since then, the 31-year-old Shristi and her younger brother, have been battling it out. Neither of their big screen ventures worked great guns, but with her TV debut, Lipstick on Zee TV, came a round of reckoning. Today, the lady isn't bitter at all but is gearing up for her next move.

Rose Movies has just launched Jeet on Star Plus and has a couple of pilots ready to be pitched to the channels. Indiantelevision.com's Trupti Ghag meets up with the lady and gets chatting about her shows, and more. Excerpts from the interview:

When and how did you take up the responsibility of Rose Movies?
Rose is our father's company. He passed away in 1990, so the responsibility shifted to us. But since we were minors, our mother stepped in, even if only to sign the cheques. The rest of the job was ours. We made two films - Angarey and Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai - after our father's death. Bas... was my brother Goldie's directorial debut.

However, in time we realised that while we were looking out for film scripts, we had to do something to generate revenue. We had the entire infrastructure in place; people working since our father's time were still with us. I knew we had to generate some work, but didn't want to push Goldie into his next film just to keep the office running either. So television was a natural progression… Then Zee's Lipstick happened.

I am told that 'Lipstick' was the channel's concept. What was your input to the show? Did the channel give you a line-by-line break up?
Yes, Lipstick was the channel's concept. But all that the channel gave us was a brief outline; we started from scratch. Both our ideation department and Zee's creative department worked on it and built it up.

We sat down and worked out all the characters and the back stories. And since it was our first show and we had the luxury of time, we sketched out the story in detail, though we knew we wouldn't need all the details at any point of time.

For example, we have worked out Suniti and her sister Suman's age difference in the serial. While these points are not an obvious part of the story line, they are portrayed in the attitude of the characters.

After this, I added certain nuances to the story (from a woman's perspective, that is). I think, I made a show that I would like to watch.

When 'Lipstick' started off, its story line was quite bold. Now it seems to be shifting gears to being a family drama. Why?
We had several tracks that were bold. Even now, Suniti's family is the same; and we have not added any new family or created new characters to 'shift gears'. Kahin se nai buaji nahi aagai hai (No aunt has sprouted from somewhere). We are working within the same parameters, but we also take into consideration audience feedback.

People used to enjoy Lipstick's family moments, so we developed it. After all, it's all about what the consumers want to watch.

Were you convinced about it? The peg that you worked on was about two women in a magazine business. Now it seems to have translated into a family feud.
It is still that. They are still bickering over the business. It is still a power struggle. It is still about the control over the company. Suniti marries Tarun knowing that only if she is a Singhania, can she have control over the company.

What about the casting? Did you have any hand in it?
Yes. We went through video tapes and auditioned a number of people and finally zeroed in on the actors. In fact, most of them were rank newcomers.

Just recently, you revamped the show and changed the lead characters. Isn't it likely to affect the show's viewership?
Shweta Salve (who played Suniti earlier) had to take a break for 20 days. We could not bank so many episodes before she left. Lipstick being a daily show, the pressure was building up even more.

Since we couldn't run a show without the chief protagonist, the other option was to change the actor. So we had an intensive meeting with the channel.

Zee had earlier succeeded in changing the main character and still running a show well (Hasratein - in which Seema Kapoor was replaced by Shefali Shetty). We also needed somebody who the audience was already familiar with and could identify with. So we got in Gautami Kapoor. Vishal Singh was also brought in for star value. Fortunately, we have noticed a slight upward trend in our TRPs, so we have been lucky.

As for repackaging the show, we had already done about 198 episodes and thought a new look would be a value-add. So we repackaged it and made it a 200th episode special.

Now Lipstick has a little more gloss, a little more of human interest. Earlier, we used to skim a lot of issues, but now, based on viewers' feedback, we improvise on them. I am in constant touch with the viewers via e-mail.

Yet, the content seems to have diluted now. Earlier the show was very crisp.
Most television shows battle for attention. Our show was going very fast. On the other side of the TV screen, viewers wait for commercial breaks to get chapattis or run out of the room to switch off the gas. We realised that if they return a few seconds after the serial starts, they should not miss out on a lot.

Now, in Lipstick, the story moves a trifle slowly, so that the audience don't lose track. Having done films in the past, we often got too pacy while making serials. There are those nitty-gritties about a television show that we are now getting the hang of.

Now that you have mentioned it, how different is doing a TV series from a feature film?
Well, with film you can manipulate the budget but a television show has to be shot within budget constraints. TV has been a wonderful learning experience for me in terms of production. If film shooting is delayed by a day or a week, it's okay. But you can't have a blank half-hour on TV. Though it seems a little tough, I think it enforces discipline.

Plus, I think you have far more professional people in television. Sometimes, you have to shoot even if it is not an ideal circumstance.

Also, with films you have your story in place, the same cannot be said of television.