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 Not
even 16 episodes old and Dollar Bahu, the bi-weekly soap on Zee,
is in trouble. Produced by Sunil Hai, an NRI based in New York,
the serial which is shot in Mumbai and New York in the proportion
of 50:50, was directed by Ajai Sinha, and his wife Sangeeta was
its executive producer. Now having worked on the project for two
years, Sinha has quit Dollar Bahu after directing 23 episodes and
the project has been taken over by director Ravi Kemmu, who had
earlier directed Hali’s Mausam’ for Zee.
But why did
Sinha quit? Is it because of differences with producer Sunil Hali?
“Actually I was supposed to organise the entire show and put
it on a platform. I began working on the script nearly two years
ago, shot the pilot and organised a bank of eight episodes before
the serial came on air on August 30,” explains Sinha who took
the unit to New York on August 20 to shoot the foreign portion.
But Sinha says during his 28-day stay there he could shoot only
five episodes against his target of 15.
Ask him the
reason for such a low output and he says there were several problems.
“The producer was not organised enough and mismanagement and
chaos hampered my work. So before leaving for India I decided that
if things functioned like this I won’t be able to continue
with the project and conveyed my decision to Hali. And since there
was no guarantee from his side that things would improve we mutually
decided to part ways because I am also making Justujoo for Zee which
is a prime programme for me as well as the channel and since it
is my own production it requires my full attention,” he explains.
Sinha further
says quitting Dollar Bahu was a difficult decision for him given
the fact that he nurtured the show right from the concept level,
put it on a platform and moreover, it took off also well. “But
I had no choice because I have to concentrate on Justujoo which
makes it difficult to give several days to Dollar Bahu,” he
elaborates adding that the channel also wasn’t too happy with
his decision to quit the show.
However, Ravi
Kemmu who was the director and executive producer of Hali’s
earlier production Mausam which was telecast on Zee’s afternoon
slot a year ago says he doesn’t know what were the problems
between Hali and Sinha. “I had a brief meeting with Hali when
he was here and he requested me to take charge of the show. And
my immediate task was to concentrate on the creative aspects of
the programme rather than finding out what were the problems between
the producer and the ex-director,” says Kemmu who is currently
shooting for Dollar Bahu in Mumbai and will be leaving for New York
with the unit after October 27.
Moving on to
his earlier experience of working with Hali for Mausam which was
also shot in Mumbai and New York in the proportion of 60:40, Kemmu
says it was fairly smooth though there were a few problems which
one had to take into account because the location was foreign. “You
have to understand that you are working in a foreign country where
the work ethics are quite different and therefore one has to adapt
to the system and work within the constraints which are unavoidable.
If I had not adapted to the system there I wouldn’t have been
able to shoot seven episodes during a short 12-day shooting schedule.
After all, you can’t ask for chilled water in a desert, can
you? It’s just a question of adapting to the situation and
take out the maximum output,” says Kemmu. Sinha has no major
regrets for quitting Dollar Bahu, except that his baby is now being
looked after by someone else.
The idea to
make a serial based on Sudha Murthy’s Kannada novel, was mooted
by Zee Telefilm’s chairman Subhash Chandra Goel, director Ajai
Sinha was the chairman’s first choice to direct the serial.
The serial deals with a woman and her relationship with her two
daughter-in-laws, one settled in New York and the other who lives
with her and looks after her in Mumbai.
—AL
Chougule
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