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 You've
got to hand it to this guy. Manish Goswami sure knows how to boost
the TRPs. Last week, there was an encore of the collective couched
hysteria that we had witnessed when Mihir on Star's Kyunkii Saas
Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi had 'died'.
A similar hysteria was seen this week when on Zee's Sarrkar,
Rohit Roy's volatile character(based on Sanjay Gandhi) died. But
producer Manish Goswami has reassuring words for fans. "Rohit's
character is live. He'll be shown reawakening in later episodes.
Such jolts are necessary to keep the TRPs healthy…like the
drama surrounding Mr Bachchan in hospital.  There's
so much competition, so many news and fiction channels ….high
drama is essential at least every week on the dailies. The popular
characters, like Rohit Roy's in Sarrkar, are specially prone
to tragedy."
Manish has another serial Kittu Sab Janti Hai on Sahara.
But the next big one is the cricket-based Sixer on Star One.
"After Sukanya, Kittie Party and Sarrkar,
Shobha De is again the brain behind Sixer. It's a soap based
on two cricketers' lives, one who makes it big and the other doesn't.
It stars two new actors, Pulkit Samrat and Druv Bhandari( actor
Mohan Bhandari's son). I wanted two fresh faces. The established
TV actors are doing 5-6 shows. How can they play young new cricket
players?"
Both
Pulkit and Druv took training in cricket for three months by Chandrakant Pandit.
And Sandeep Patil is the soap's cricket consultant.
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Shobha
De will write Sixer. "Over the course of four serials Shobha and I
have established a very good working relationship. Yes, she's expensive. But she
delivers. In fact after Sixer, I've another project with Shobha in the
pipeline. We start shooting for both soaps in March."
While the
basic story for Sixer is by Shobha De, it is Sandeep Shrivastava(who wrote
Ram Gopal Varma's Ab Tak Chappan) who will be developing the plot. Says
Manish, "She's flooded with offers. But she prefers to work with my company.
We plan to hit many sixers on TV every day."
Manish also intends to do non-fiction for television this year. "But my preferred
genre is fiction. That's where I earn my bread and butter." ****  Sa
Re Ga Ma continues to be my only watchable show. After his favourite candidate
Nihira Joshi was eliminated from the final rounds of Sa Re Ga Ma, judge
Ismail Durbar walked off in a huff on- camera.
"It was a moment
of great anguish for us. When Ismailji walked out we at Sa Re Ga Ma Pa
felt as though the show would collapse. So close to the finals, I just didn't
know what to do," says producer-director Gajendra Singh.
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But now
in a swift reversal of decision, the emotional music composer, has agreed to return
to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.
Speaking
from Surat, Ismail says, "I'm very upset by the public's decision to oust
Nihira. Everyone knows how beautifully she sings. I feel there's a conspiracy
afoot to eliminate my other candidate Debojit. The other judges have deliberately
given him less marks on this week's episode. That's when I decided there's no
point in staying on. One genuine singer had already gone. Now they want to eliminate
another genuine singer…I thought enough was enough…Can't we recognize
quality when we hear it?"
"Look
at how the public made Qazi Tauqeer (on Sony Entertainment's Fame Gurukul)
win….It's a big slur to our musical heritage. Nihira according to me was
the best among the 32 really good participants on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Everyone
knows this…If she had won it would've been a victory for music…Just
because Nihira can't wear revealing clothes or dance or camera, are these a crime?
Did we ever see Lataji as anything but a goddess wrapped in a sari? When I recently
recorded with Lataji for the first time last month, I had tears in my eyes. At
77 she still has so much passion. Nihira is walking in Lataji's footsteps,"
says Durbar.
 Ismail
doesn't agree when he's accused of favouring his own disciples on Sa Re Ga
Ma Pa. "Himani and Vinit aren't my students. But I've never been stingy
with my compliments for them. All the kids have come with the same mission on
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. That's why I gave away my dad's precious fifty-rupee note
to Vinit who is Himesh Reshammiya's student. Vinit won me over when he took one
difficult line from Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya within moments….Now they're
trying to eliminate my other pupil Debojit. My fellow-judge Aadesh Shrivastava
has always criticized him. The boy has struggled so much in Mumbai. And he has
great voice. If we eliminate him for making a mistake in the singing then we'd
have to get rid of all the contestants."
Ismail says he felt suffocated
by the goings-on in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. "My heart is broken…I left
Mumbai and came home to Surat. But, for the sake of the show I've decided to return
to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa."
Let's see where the battle of the egos
goes from here. **** The
best part of the recent Screen awards was when Jaya Bachchan and her son walked
home with the trophy for the man of the house. It was an emotional moment. Later,
there were interviews with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rani Mukherjee and Mr Bachchan
where they mostly spoke to us in sign language.
Wish there were more
silences during after and outside the awards function. (The
views expressed here are those of the author and indiantelevision.com need not
necessarily subscribe to the same)
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