Earshot

Nandy's comebackAfter Ek Raja Ek Rani, which was aired almost a year ago, Pritish Nandy Communications Production has come up with anothe...

Nandy’s comeback
After Ek Raja Ek Rani, which was aired almost a year ago, Pritish Nandy Communications Production has come up with another serial called Raj Kahani. The serial will be directed by Nandy’s son Kushan Nandy. It’s an epic of romance, adventure and fun. Raj Kahani is the story of Aditya and Mungi — identical twins — separated at birth, who live sharply contrasting lives. Aditya is a prince, while Mungi is a petty thief. You must have seen innumerable films on twins, but this is perhaps the first time its happening on television. The serial premieres on Sunday, March 14 at 10.30 a.m. on DD’s National Network. It stars R Madhavan (in a double role), Govind Namdeo, Sushmita Mukherjee, Raju Kher, Amit Behl among others, and, believe it or not, has music by Bappi Lahiri!

Busybee
Talking of Madhavan, he is definitely one of the busiest television stars today. And with four of his serials on air simultaneously — Banegi Apni Baat, Ghar Jamai, Sea Hawks and Saaya — life must be quite hectic. While he is looking forward to the release of his film Akeli being directed by Vinod Pande, where he is cast opposite Bengali award-winning actress Nandini, he is getting quite a few offers from regional film makers as well. Recently, he was offered the main lead in a Malayalam film by Joy Augustine, but believe it or not he turned it down, because they wanted 35 days’ dates at a stretch.

Three lives
Basu Chatterjee, the man behind some award winning films like Chitchor, Chhoti Si Baat, Khatta Meetha and memorable serials such as Byomkesh Bakshi, Kakkaji Kahin is back after a protracted absence with a serial called Ullanghan which premiered last Sunday on DD-1 (replacing Ketan Mehta’s Captain Vyom). It’s based on Dr S L Bhairappa’s Kannada novel Dattu. The serial has been produced by D N Joshi and is penned by renowned writer Manohar Shyam Joshi. Ullanghan is the story of three families — the head of one family is a priest, the second a zamindar, and the third a dalit. The leads actors are Virendra Saxena, Rajendra Gupta, Preeti Khan, Virendra Singh and Vijay Kashyap.

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God Speed
Daryasagar, that serial about the life and times of Jesus Christ is back on DD-1 at 10.00 pm on Saturdays, despite its unsuccessful stint on the same channel in the past. Produced by Radha Chitra, in collaboration with Amruthrani Communications and Day Spring and CBN (USA), it’s directed by Dr Vijaya Chander who also plays Christ. Earlier, he had also done a Telugu film on Christ called Karunamayudu in 1978. Now, he has erected a huge set, a replica of the city of Jerusalem, in Hyderabad. Nine-year-old Aditya Paudwal has scored the 20 songs which will feature in the serial, while they have been rendered by Sonu Nigam, Mohd. Aziz, Anuradha Paudwal, S P Balasubramaniam and many others. Dharmesh Tiwari, Suresh Chatural, Girija Shankar, Sana, Ashwini Kalsikar play key roles in this epic which is also being dubbed in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu. Hope it works this time Amen to that!

Together, again
Remember? Director Sunil Agnihotri and producer Sattee Shourie had a major showdown during Yug and they parted ways swearing never to see each other’s face again. Shourie took over the directorial reins, but subsequently, the serial itself went off the air. Even Agnihotri was left with nothing much. Now, apparently, they have patched up. If rumours are to be believed, Shourie had approached Arun Frank and Anant Mahadevan for a daily soap, but both refused. Finally, Agnihotri is back with her and they are actually shooting two shifts a day at Film City. The serial should be aired on DD very soon and this time round. We hear it’s being called Nav Yug!