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Innocent love
NDTV Imagine is starting a new soap Baali Umar Ko Salaam from November 3 at 8 pm. It is about a young girl who matures into a young woman when she falls in love. A small-town girl, Naina falls for her classmate Sameer the moment she sees him. Naina is played by newcomer Ankita Lokhande and Jay Soni plays her love interest Sameer.
Mrinal plays Jijabai
Mrinal Kulkarni is all set to essay the role of Jijabai in Nitin Chandrakant Desai’s Raja Shiv Chhatrapati, which will be aired on the new Marathi channel Star Pravah. Mrinal who made her debut with a historical serial Swami is excited about playing Shivaji’s mother. “Jijabai was an ideal woman. She single-handedly reared her son and fought for her dream,” says the pretty actress who considers it to be the best role of her career. And yet, when she was approached for the role, Mrinal was hesitant to take it up. “I am already doing a Hindi daily Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat and felt it would be difficult to accommodate another daily soap. But I realised this was a once-in-a-lifetime role and agreed,” smiles Mrinal who has been a student of history. To prepare for her role, the actress has read as many books as she could on the subject. “My grandfather was a historian, so that also helped,” she informs. Incidentally, this is the fifth time in her career that she is essaying a historical character. Her other such serials include Swami and The Great Maratha besides Meerabai and Draupadi. “I am glad that I have maintained a balance between historical and social serials like Teacher, Solah Shingarr etc,” she says. In fact, in Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat the actress, for the first time, portrays a negative character. “It was difficult to get the vampish look and gestures, initially,” she says but now Mrinal is “enjoying it”.
Missing credits Parivaar to go off air
According to sources, the first serial being produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies is a sitcom loosely based on the yesteryear hit Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi. Sumeet Raghavan and Juhi Babbar will be seen in the serial. When contacted, Sumeet refused to comment on the show. “Nothing’s been confirmed as yet and I cannot reveal anything right now,” he said. Yeh Jo Hai.. aired on Doordarshan and starred Swaroop Sampat, Shafi Inamdar, Satish Shah and Rakesh Bedi in pivotal roles. The serial was so popular that DVDs of the show were launched by Shemaroo.
Hotel By The Bay, the new series that premiered on Disney Travel & Living, is produced by Miditech but their name doesn’t feature in the release sent by the channel. When contacted, Rahul Johri, SVP and GM - India, Discovery Networks, Asia Pacific, said that the channel commissions programmes to producers and that Miditech was the executive producer. However, Nikhil Alva of Miditech was surprised that the name of the production house was missing from the credits. “This is the first time that something like this is happening to us. We have done so many documentaries for Discovery and NatGeo and everytime Miditech has been mentioned. I wasn’t even aware that a press conference had been organised for the show,” he said.
According to sources, Parivaar aired on Zee Monday - Friday at 7.30 pm is set go off-air from November 10, apparently due to low TRPs. The serial has been on air for two years. A family drama, it is about a middle-class Maharashtrian girl and her travails after marriage. The serial stars Deepti Devi, Sachin Sharma and Shweta Shinde.
