Ajay Mehra:

Content with his Kamyabi

An avid student of cinema, Ajay Mehra’s passion is to make "meaningful" films. But since making a meaningful film in Bollywood’s highly commercial environment appears to be an uphill task for him, he is content making serials. But Ajay Mehra is no newcomer in Tellywood. Almost a decade ago he had made the highly appreciated serial Karmbhoomi which was based on Munshi Prem Chand’s novel of the same name. Next followed a few commissioned serials for Doordarshan. And currently he is busy making his first daily soap, Kamyabi, which is being telecast on Doordarshan’s National Network from Monday to Friday at 12 noon.

With rock-steady Television Rating Points (TRP) and at the number two spot on the popularity charts among the six daily soaps that are on air on DD-1, Kamyabi, written, scripted, produced and directed by Ajay Mehra, is a multi-layered drama with 18 major characters and innumerable sub-plots. In Kamyabi, the main conflict is between two brothers -- Aatmaram, a hardcore materialistic businessman, and Adarsh, a committed social worker who runs a social service organisation called Kamyabi. Aatmaram whose sole aim in life is to make mega bucks is unhappy with the fact that his only son, Siddhant, is more influenced by his uncle’s commitment to social causes and assist him in running the affairs of Kamyabi and tries to solve common people’s problems.

Wanting his son to help him in running the family business, he tries to change his mind-set by getting him married to Anjali, an ambitious and materialistic girl. But Anjali’s efforts are in vain and soon she realises that they are not made for each other. Complications arise when Anjali learns that Siddhant is in love with his father’s driver’s daughter Bahar. Thus the conflict between the two brothers and father and son gives enough dramatic ammunition to the story.

Starring Rajendra Gupta, Nikki Aneja, Nishigandha Wad, Virendra Singh, Sanjay Batra, Roma william, Gargi Nandi, Upasna Singh and Rakesh Pandey among others, Kamyabi is 70 episodes old and Ajay says the story will wind up in 260 episodes. Shot in a single camera set up with a ratio of 60 per cent indoor and 40 outdoor scenes, Kamyabi, says the producer-director, is getting good feedback from viewers.

He says making a daily soap is a different ball game altogether. "The story moves very fast and therefore you don’t have to be just creative but efficiently creative," he explains. "Moreover, the story requires a fine blend of drama, romance, conflict, emotions and relationships to cater to the family audience. Making a daily soap is much more challenging than a weekly."

But it’s not all that difficult a task for a seasoned director like Ajay who has been calling the shots for more than a decade. Before direction happened to him, he started his career as a stage actor and performed more than 400 shows of 12 different plays. Quick to realise that he didn’t have a bright future in the acting arena, he decided to give direction a try. But before moving on to direction, he spent three years in the editing room, assisting well known film editor Subhash Gupta. "Knowledge of editing is a must for a director," explains Ajay. "From the editing table, you can judge a film closely and rectify the director’s mistakes and it helps you in designing scenes and shot taking."

From editing he switched to direction and assisted directors like Manek Chatterji and the late Bharati Rungachari. A few years later, he debuted as director with Karmbhoomi which was followed by a few commissioned Doordarshan serials like Aasra, Behti Ganga, Desh Prem and Seva Sadan. And then he took a big step in his career -- he directed a feature film, Umar Pachpan Ki Dil Bachpan Ka, a comedy that was a disaster at the box-office.

After the box-office debacle of his debut film, he returned to television and made Right Choice for Sony and also made a couple of pilots, one of which was Kamyabi. While Kamyabi is on air on DD-1, Ajay Mehra has two more shows in the offing. One is a sitcom called Satte Pe Satta which has been approved by Zee and is likely to come on air in January. The other is a soap called Ek Violin Samander Ke Kinare which has been approved on Doordarshan.

The soft-spoken and down-to-earth producer-director is not too ambitious and is quite satisfied with the kind of work he is doing on television. "I will continue to work for television because it gives me opportunity to experiment with off-beat subjects," he elaborates. "The best thing about television audience is that they have an open mind and appreciate experimentation. "But being a student of cinema, I am dying to make a sensible film. And hopefully I will start working on my next film some time next year. It’s going to be an outright comedy." Currently, his energies are concentrated on making Kamyabi a kamyab serial.

ALC