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Journalism of Courage
Far-ha ha
Recently, actress Farha was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Rumours had it she was going to divorce Vindoo. But now, it looks like all is well on the personal front and we hear that they have started living together again. But this time she is the talk of Tellywood because she is planning to produce a serial which she will write and direct. Farha is drawing the line at acting though. She claims that it will be a 200-episoder and a never-seen-before family soap, for which the shooting begins from October 8.
Peerless Pathak?
Neeraj Pathak, director of serial like Saraab, Akhir Kaun and Achanak, is over the moon. The writer of films like the Big B-starrer Lal Badshah and Subhash Ghai8217;s Pardes is really hitting the big time. Three of his serials have got approvals and will commence telecast soon. The first one is Yeh Tanhaiyan, and has Ashok Saraf and his wife Nivedita she makes a comeback after 11 years. Then there is Yehi To Pyar Hai with Aditi Govitrikar the girl who appeared in Anu Malik8217;s video Baarish with the Ruf amp; Tuf model Sanjay Suri. And the third one is an emotional soap with Suresh Oberoi, Sumeet Saigal and Beena called Yeh Tera Ahar Yeh Mera Ghar. Believe it or not, all of them have been approved by Zee TV.
Arjun Singh Rathore, the producer of Maharana Pratap, is on a high horse 8212; that is, he too is riding high. We know that his serial 8212; which had gone off the air a few months ago premieres again today with a new name Shoorveer Maharana Pratap. But the actual reason for his high is that he has signed on Vinod Khanna to play the role of Maharana Pratap. And if the buzz is to be believed Rathore is also trying to rope in either Shashi Kapoor or Rishi Kapoor as the Mughal Emperor. Sounds very exciting 8212; well we only hope this time it works!
Bad manners
On the party front, there was another one thrown by Neha Thakur, at Juhu Hotel whose Aandhi is slated to start on Sept 27 at 2.45 pm DD1. It was quite a bad show though the episode directed by Arun Frank was worth watching and waiting for. Not so the producer herself who strolled in at 9 pm instead of 7.30 pm. The preview cassette arrived when the scribes were about to leave though director Arun Frank was there at the dot of 7.30pm. What8217;s more, even when the party was half way through, the production assistants were still busy putting up banners. From the cast only Raza Murad and Grusha Kapoor came in. Kiran Kumar and Rishabh Shukla don8217;t bother to turn up.
Mungeri8217;s mamla
Prakash Jha, the man behind the award-winning film Mrityudand, has also given TV some of its best sitcoms like Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne. Today, however, he is a worried man. His sequel to this sitcom Mungeri Ke Bhai Naurangi, which premiered around six weeks ago, isn8217;t doing well in terms of TRPs and viewership. One reason could be the Wednesday 9.30 pm slot on DD1 as it has to compete with Woh on Zee and CID on Sony. So last Tuesday he threw another press conference he had organised one before the telecast at Kohinoor Park Hotel in Mumbai. Why? Only Jha knows. It was a low-key affair though his entire cast turned up and among those spotted were Rajpal Yadav who plays Naurangi, Sandhya Singh, Vallabh Vyas and Sunil Shende.
X-Lies?
We have had many horror shows like Aahat, X-Zone and Woh but Lekin Woh Bhi Sach Tha, which premiered on Doordarshan last week, is very different from these shows. Directed by Manoj Nautiyal, who had directed a serial Drishant earlier and also a few episodes of Shaktimaan and produced by Vipul Kothari, it is based on metaphysical incidents. It deals with things such as telekinesis, astral projection and autism. It is inspired by the X-Files and here the protagonists work for an agency called Anti Superstition Wing. It stars Nikki Aneja and Salil Ankola in the lead. Nandita Kothari who has conceptualised it, has researched the subject for over two years. quot;We wanted to make something different and this actually has a lot of educational value. Now let8217;s see whether it works or not,quot; says Nautiyal.
