Earshot 8212; Pune

Serious stuff
One reason why the television is called an idiot box is that the emphasis is more on entertainment. But things could be changing. Zee TV which initially took a clear position as an soft entertainment channel has, of lately, been trying to shift the emphasis to literature. It has come up with serials based on novels such as Mujhe Chand Chahiye based on Surender Verma8217;s novel, Naya Daur based on Bhagwati Verma8217;s novel which were were none too successful and Hasratein based on the novel Adhantri by Jayant Dalvi which became extremely popular. Rishtey and the forthcoming Gubbare have stories picked up from literature by the famous American short story writer, O8217;Henry. 8220;Most programmes are similar and some so- called intellectual people look down upon us. We8217;re trying to give a distinct character to our own brand differentiation, hence more emphasis on literary works,8221; says Ranjan Bakshi of Zee, explaining the strategy.

Jai Saahil
Television actor Saahil Chadda had taken a week off to fly to Delhi last week. It was not for a holiday. He was in the capital to meet Adjutant General S.S. Garewal who handles The Army Central Welfare Fund as he individually collected a sum of Rs 2.,61626, for the jawans from his friends, relatives and colleagues. From there he visited the Army Command Hospital at Udhampur. Chadda felt all this was possible because of his brother-in-law Col. Ramchandani as well as Lt.Col Chauhan. We spoke to Chadda on the phone who said we8217;re able to talk peacefully only because of our brave soldiers. 8220;It was an amazing experience. I thank everyone who helped me help our jawans, but I wish I could cross 3 lakh said Saahil.

Big and small
Just a few days back we were talking about Ashutosh Rana who made it big in films via television, but how he hadn8217;t forgotten his television days. When Manish Goswami8217;s Waaris with Rana in the lead, was approved for Zee, everyone was dying to know if he would continue acting in it as he8217;d done the pilot a year back. The answer is yes, he is still acting in the serial inspite of having some big banner films up his sleeve like the Akshay starrer Taanwar, and Sanghursh in which he plays the main villain. The only problem seems to be his dates. But his sense of commitment has to be appreciated, what say you?

Off and out
Looks like Ashok Pandit is facing some rough times. After his serial Tere Mere Sapne was pulled off Zee, he made a pilot called Mukammal which awaits approval. Then we heard he was directing Sattee Shourie8217;s Vilaytee Babu but he left it once he got Multichannel8217;s Mungeri Ke Bhai Naurangilal to direct, earlier directed by Prakash Jha. But now he is out of that as well and so is the cast which he had introduced: Amit Behl, Vani, Tripathi, Suscheel Prasher, Zakir have all been replaced. Only Rajpal Yadav who plays Naurangi, remains.