Imagine TV is going for a dual launch in Sagar Arts' Dwarkadheesh: Bhagwan Shri Krishn and Creative Eye's Sawaare Sabke Sapne - Preeto from the 4th of July at the 8 - 9 PM slot.
At the outset, Saurabh Tewary, Head of Programing – Fiction, Imagine TV, talks about these two shows.
                        
About the decision of having a mythological like Dwarkadheesh in the daily band, he said...
"Actually all began with the experiment of a different type of story telling with Chandragupta Maurya. It was a big fiction property for us and was put at a tough and competitive slot. And today the experiment has paid off well. We never wanted to treat Chandragupta Maurya as a typical historical, and kept the story telling and execution pacey. Now that Chandragupta Maurya has worked, we have decided to go one step further with Dwarkadheesh. We are very confident of the show doing well, as again its not been treated as a historical. We have kept the divine feeling intact and have not altered the image of Krishn, but the class and style with which we are shooting is different. Also we are touching upon the unexplored arenas like the story post Mahabharat, the Ruler in Krishn, why and what brought about the fall of Dwaraka etc. We have seen the childhood of Krishna being shown fabulously thro' Jai Shri Krishna on Colors. You will never get to see Krishna's childhood or for the matter of fact, the Krishn-Radha chemistry, the Kans Wadh on our show. Dwarkadheesh starts on a premise where all of these incidents have already happened in the life of Krishna".
                                        
On the casting of Vishal Karwal to essay the all important role of Lord Krishn, Saurabh Tewary avers...
"We found Vishal to be the right guy to portray the role. He is very good looking and has the dimple smile, with naughtiness in his eyes. When we saw him in the audition, we immediately knew he fits the role perfectly".
                                               
Talking about the other principal cast he states...
"Priya Bhatija plays Rukmini; the new face Nikitin Dheer essays the important cameo of Kalyavan who gets killed by Krishn in the very first episode. We will be casting known faces from both TV and films for special guest appearances as the story goes on".

Moving on to the other show Sawaare Sabke Sapne - Preeto, he states...
"Preeto is the story of a girl who takes care of her entire family and provides them with financial support like the son of the house. The uniqueness of this show lies in the manner in which the day to day situations in the life of the girl are dealt with. Preeto is not a girl who will sulk and cry at the end of the day; she knows to tackle her problems. She is a very relatable girl of today. She is full of life and energy and goes on to fall in love with an airforce guy".
                        
When asked about such concepts seen earlier wherein the girl gets to be the bread winner of the family, he says...
"The beauty and disadvantage of the TV medium is that there are overall five concepts to deal with. If you look for a sixth concept, you might not get it. So all depends on showing the same thing in a different and better manner. If we try to show something drastically difficult, it usually falls flat. In Preeto too, the novelty and uniqueness is in the day to day execution".
                               
Adding further, he states...
"Preeto is not a crusader who believes in fighting for justice wherever she goes. Her world is her family and handles problems in her way. She is independent, confident and aggressive, that way is extremely relatable".
                                             
On Ankita Sharma playing the title role, he comments...
"Ankita has that real element of life and spark, along with freshness. Preeto had to be a girl who you would fall in love with in just five minutes. The girl had to be good looking, and Ankita had all the characteristics. In fact both our lead couple had to be good looking. And we went thro' about 35 - 40 girls, both known and semi known before we zeroed in on Ankita. Also, Aditya
Redij who plays the lead is a cool dude in real life, similar to his character in the show".

On the existing shows on Imagine, Saurabh opined...
"It's an extremely competitive market, and there is no clear run for any GEC at themoment. As for Imagine, Beendh Banunga Ghodi Chadhunga which was launched during IPL has bettered in numbers and is doing consistently well. And Ratan Ka Rishta has given it a good lead in. Chandragupta Maurya of course is the leader. Baba Aiso Varr Dhundo is slowly recovering in numbers after the time slot change. We are heading towards an interesting story line as far as Baba is concerned. We are looking forward to Dwarkadheesh and Preeto to take us forward. There are nearly three more fiction shows in the pipeline".

Last but not the least, talking about the mediocre run of Ratan Ka Rishta in terms of ratings, he said...
"The overall response has been good. Having said this, we have always seen that reality shows do not fare as well in the later seasons when compared to the initial ones. But we believe Ratan Ka Rishta will gear up in numbers in the final stages".

Reporter and Author: Srividya Rajesh