The train to nowhere

With the overwhelming public response to serials based on the supernatural, television producers of all hues seem to have found the elusi...

With the overwhelming public response to serials based on the supernatural, television producers of all hues seem to have found the elusive formula for success on the small screen. Along with X-Zone on Zee TV and Aahat on Sony TV, ghosts and spirits have invaded the homes of TV viewers like never before. The latest to join the bandwagon of spooks is United Television UTV, with its forthcoming, Bogey No. 13.

Predictably, the creators of the serial, executive producer Suresh Iyer and director Shivam Nair beg to differ. 8220;Some of the very popular serials in this genre, have different stories, with different characters in every episode. Bogey No. 13 has a common set of characters 8212; actually, two characters and a train which are common throughout the serial,8221; explains Iyer.

The serial is being planned in one-hour episodes, revolving around a writer Irfan Khan and his experiences in the bogey number 13 of a train called Samarpan Express. Completely shattered by the death of his wife, the writer loses all interest not only in writing but in life itself.Just when he seems to be ready to give up completely, he is 8220;drawn8221; by supernatural circumstances to a journey on Samarpan Express. What the good writer doesn8217;t know is that the person who has asked him to get on the train 8211; promising him that he will get an excellent story 8211; is a ghost. In fact, he is a killer-spirit. he has just claimed his twelfth victim and is looking for the thirteenth. Moreover, the train too is haunted. 8220;We have taken a lot of pains to make this serial. In fact, I am thinking of it as a film and not as a serial,8221; says Shivam Nair who has taken over the direction of UTV8217;s Sea Hawks after Anubhav Sinha quit midway.

Nair points out that he has spent hours just searching for the right location to shoot the episode 8212; they have just completed the pilot. They plan to avoid shooting in studios in the city, preferring to shoot in genuinely eerie-looking, abandoned locations in the countryside.

Each one-hour episode is estimated to cost around Rs 6 lakh. 8220;We do not have too many characters in the story. We will be focussing more on enhancing the technical quality and visual appeal of the serial,8221; Iyer says.

Nair points out that although the serial is based on the supernatural, he has taken care to see that he doesn8217;t go overboard by depicting gory visuals, with grotesque looking 8220;ghosts8221;. The incidents in the story are treated in a subtle manner, just enough to create fear, without having to depend on macabre visuals.

In fact, the visuals are consciously given a pleasant feel as the narration is not dialogue-driven; something which Nair believes has not been attempted very often on television in India.

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According to Nair, what makes the task of mounting the serial even more challenging is that they do not have any reference point for it. 8220;Right from the beginning, we had decided that we will never let our narration be influenced by some other film or serial based on the supernatural. And since we decided not to fall back on something we had seen before, every time we shot a scene, we had to think of new ways to create it.8221;

Both Suresh Iyer and Shivam Nair are visibly excited about the project. As of now, they have only made the pilot. According to Iyer, the serial may take another three to four months before it comes on air.