Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; July 18, 2014)

Mahesh Bhatt’s unfinished film, Girvi, that starred Ajay Devgn and Pooja Bhatt will now be made into a television serial titled Udaan.

Bhatt says, “This film could not be finished due to some problems. One day, Gurudev Bhalla, one of my assistants on the film, came to me and asked if the story could be made into a serial. I agreed.’’

The show is about how an unborn girl child from a poor man’s family is pawned to a zamindar. “In the film, the unborn child grows up to be Ajay Devgn. But for the show, the gender has been changed — an unborn girl child is pawned instead. Rest of the premise remains the same.’’

Actress Sai Deodhar, who earlier played the lead in shows such as Saara Aakaash and Ek Ladki Anjaani Si, will headline the cast in this show. In the meantime, Bhatt is also collaborating with Rajan Shahi for a show for another channel. Written by Zama Habib, the story is not a saasbahu saga. It is said to be about an ambitious girl who wants to fulfill her dreams at any cost.
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Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; July 18, 2014)

Girvi, conceptualised by Mahesh Bhatt was supposed to be a film starring Ajay Devgn and Pooja Bhatt, but that film never saw the light of day. It is now being converted into Udaan, a TV serial for Colors YVrob.

The show, co-written by Robin Bhatt and Javed Siddiqui (who have penned films like Baazigar and Koi Mil Gaya), explores the issue of bonded labour, still being practised in some villages. Says Robin, “It was in 1992 that Mahesh got the concept of doing a film on bonded labour. He had read somewhere about a child being mortgaged when it was in the womb of his mother. Javed and I scripted it. We shot some five-six reels of the film, before it was abandoned by the producer due to financial difficulties. Since then, Mahesh and I have always felt bad about such a fantastic subject being wasted.”

Over a decade later, Gurudev Bhalla, who had once assisted Mahesh, approached Robin and asked if he could make it into a TV show. He asked Robin to script it as he is the original writer. With just one request. That he make it female-oriented. “In the film, a boy is mortgaged, but for the serial we changed it to a girl child. We developed the story and showed it to Mahesh, who liked it immensely,” says Robin. Gurudev then
approached the channel and immediately got a go-ahead.

Udaan will see Sai Deodhar-Anand making a comeback to TV after three years. She plays the mother and Rajiv Kumar her husband.