Last Wednesday, Zee TV hosted a party to introduce six new serials which go on air in the coming weeks. The list includes Pankaj Kapoor's Mohandas BA LLB, the Shekhar Suman-Laxmikant Berde starrer, Dum Dama Dum and Yehi Hai Zindagi. The venue for the party could not have been better on the rooftop of a hotel facing the Arabian Sea. There was plenty of romance and energy in the air. Actors galore turned up, representing almost the entire Who's Who of Tellywood. Spotted all over the expansive roof were Mohan Gokhale, Amit Behl, A K Hangal, Pankaj Kapoor, Amita Nangia, Supriya Pathak and Raaja Bundela. Though the night was chilly and windy, the jampacked party went on till 1 a.m. Singing starClose Up Antakshari seems to have done Pallavi Joshi a world of good. After establishing her singing credentials, Pallavi has turned to playback singing. She has lent her voice for a song in Zee TV's Chaahat Aur Nafrat in which she plays a leading role. She recorded a duet composed by Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen with director Saurav Sengupta, who has also sung the title track for the serial. The song will be picturised by Deepan Vartak and Pallavi.All in oneSuchitra Krishnamurthy who turned singer with Dole Dole and followed it up with Dum Tara is back with her third album A-Ha. In her latest album, apart from singing and appearing in the video, she has composed the music for a couple of songs along with Raju Singh. And she has also penned the lyrics for a few of them.Big to smallToday, television is no longer playing second fiddle to the big screen, what with Bollywood heavyweights playing an active role on the small screen. The latest rumour doing the rounds is that none other than the superstar of yesteryears, Rajesh Khanna is setting up his own software company. Now that he isn't very active on the political front and anyway film offers aren't exactly pouring in, Kaka has started work on a television serial. It is also learnt that he is planning to convert his long unsold film, Jai Shiv Shanker into a television series. Perhaps he could take some advice from Romesh Sharma and Danny Denzongpa, who converted their bilingual film into Ajnabi which has had such a successful run on DD.Happy daysRaman Kumar of Tara-fame, who was once ruling the roost on Zee TV with as many as five serials and daily soap on air, has been going through a rough patch for the last year. But now it seems he is ready to strike back with two serials. One is a sitcom called Yeh Hai Zindagi with Farouque Shaikh in the lead for Zee TV. The other is a daily soap called Deewar, which is being produced by Mukesh Khanna and will replace Nimbus' Farz on DD 1. So here's one director who may have a great start to the new year.Musical chairsUTV's Mirabai which went unnoticed for almost 25 episodes ran into further trouble. Its director, Ved Rahi walked out of the serial and this was followed by a long hunt for another director. First it was the wizard of costumes dramas, Sunil Agnihotri who was to take over the job. He backed out for unknown reasons. Then Rajan Waghdhare of Shrimaan Shrimati-fame was chosen. Next, Rakesh Sarang, who had directed Umeed and Shatranj was appointed. Unfortunately, while all these changes took place, the serial was pulled off DD2.
