Making music out of Amaanat

Parivartan is one of the more successful soaps on Zee. That’s because of Ashok Shekhar. You may not have heard of him but then how many behind-the-scenes people do you know? If he’s making waves today it is because he has just produced a music album Amaanat — his tribute to the late Sanjeev Bhattacharya, the man behind the successful serial of the same name. The video has been on air since the first week of February. The music album was the idea of his friend Sanjay Pratap (who owns the Mexican Sheriff Restaurant — the only theme restaurant in Mumbai). It was planned as a Punjabi pop, because they both felt that after English and Hindi only Punjabi songs sold on the international market.“Within 15 days we started recording and luckily the day we finished recording we sold it to Toshee Music."

Funnily, Shekhar claims that the name of the album is in no way connected to the serial Amaanat. The album is called Aamanat because the family that feature in the video is called Amaanat, just as in Parivartan there is a Singhani family and an Ajmera family. “It is also my tribute to Sanjeev Bhattacharya who was a very close friend of mine,” reveals Shekhar. However, he does admit to having used the same actors that are in the serial: the seven sisters, two buas and the servant Nigoda. “We felt the Amaanat family is the best and most established one with the viewers and all the characters are very popular.” The video also has Sapna Joshi (of the sitcom Captain House, Zee) doing her first music video. Shekhar chose her after they worked together on a project called Niay Angrey. The concept of the video so appealed to Sapna that she, apparently, did it for free.

Shekhar who produces Parivartan with UTV has just completed 25 years in the industry. Way back in 1974 he joined Shakti Samantha as a production manager. "I’ve worked with every star right from Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh, Naseer and Mithun," claims Shekhar proudly. In 1990 he created his own banner, Shekhar Films, which didn’t take off and in 1994 it became Shekhar TV Video. But with Amaanat he definitely feels he’s come a long way but also that a lot has yet to be done. "I should have been much ahead. Maybe something is lacking in me," he admits modestly.

Why did he shift focus from television to music? “I have not shifted my focus,” Shekhar replies, “ but to be honest I was a bit disappointed. Everything is so precarious, nothing is definite. Once you shoot a pilot you’re not sure when it will go on air.” Shekhar believes that music is a paying line. “There was a phase when everyone was producing a serial — even paanwallahs wanted to become producers. Now the same is the case of music.”

Since he’s shifted to music, and he plans more music projects in the future, he’s got less interest in TV. But there are a few projects: episodes of Saturday Suspense, X Zone (Zee). “I’m also doing Ali Baba which I plan to shoot in Hyderabad,”adds Shekar, “Sumeet Saigal plays Ali Baba. He is also the man responsible for giving the life of the late Princess Diana an Indian context. He will be executing a project for UTV called Princess starring Kitu Gidwani, Vijayaendra Ghatge and Mohan Kapoor.

That is one show none of us will want to miss.