FAMILY, FRIENDS & FEUDS

Lokhandwala Complex at Andheri, Mumbai is the popular abode of film personalities. Many of them have bought penthouses and spacious apartments here. Fortuantely, the shootouts that grabbed headlines for a while have died a natural death, and today if there’re any gun battles in this area they are the reel life kind.

Magnum House, one of the bungalows here, is the setting for Aandhi Jazbaton Ki. Niki Aneja is the proud owner of this one crore plus bungalow. She plays Vini Dabral, a business tycoon’s ambitious wife in the serial. A confrontation scene between her and her pa-in-law (Sunil Shinde) is being canned. Shinde is trying to convince Vini who has walked out on her husband Vishal (Gurpreet Singh) because she is convinced he’s still in love with her best friend Ujla (Bhagyashree) to reconcile with him. Vishal has been in love with Ujla since their college days but she never reciprocated his feelings and now she’s an MP and married to Inder (Ronit Roy). Ujla hasn’t given her friend any reason to suspect that she has been unfaithful with her husband but there has been a rift in their relationship. Shinde suggests to his bahu that they frame Ujla. He’s convinced this will cure Vishal’s obsession with her. Vini is not convinced that this will get her husband’s mind off her friend but agrees to give the idea a shot.

Co-producer Aneesh Dev who has also concieved the serial, points out that there are only 33 per cent women candidates in parliament and through the character of Ujla he’s trying to emphasise that a working woman, even if she’s a famous politician, faces problems on the homefront because of her preoccupation with her career. The second query the serial raises is that when women are working closely with men how would you describe her relationship with them? Can they be just friends? And finally, can ambitions and aspirations ruin friendships and result in a breakdown within the family.

Director Rajesh Ranshinge who used to be a photographer for the National Geographic, insists that the serial has given him a lot of scope as a director. “AJK is a serial in which there is something happening constantly. I have enjoyed working with this unit because everyone is very cooperative and doesn’t give a young director like me any problems.”

Being made under the banner of Modi Entertainment Network and Wide Angle Media, the serial is also produced by Lalit Modi.