Pandemic forces producers, channels to terminate costly and unprofitable shows
Akash Bhatnagar (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 12, 2020)

On Saturday, actress Monalisa and producer Gul Khan took to Instagram to announce that their supernatural show, Nazar, is going off air after a two-year run on Star Plus. The last fresh episode aired on March 20 before shooting stopped following Coronavirus outbreak.

When Mirror reached out to Gul, she clarified that it’s because of the budget that the show was cancelled midway. “In the post COVID-19 world, advertisement budgets will be limited and it will be difficult to keep expensive shows going. Nazar was mounted on a lavish scale, with plenty of visual effects and action sequences. Restrictions in budget are going to be the reality, at least in the coming year,” she predicts.

Nazar is not the only show to be axed. In April, Sony terminated three of its shows— Beyhadh 2, Ishaaron Ishaaron Mein and Patiala Babes. An industry source informs that after Nazar, Dil Jaise Dhadke... Dhadakne Do is the next show that will be going off the air. “The channel is yet to announce it but the decision has been taken. They are even contemplating the future of Sooraj Barjatya’s Dadi Amma... Dadi Amma Maan Jaao! which started towards the end of January this year,” the source added.

Buzz is, even Zee is planning to pull the plug on some of its ongoing shows, among them Dil Yeh Ziddi Hai and Manmohini, are the names currently doing the rounds.

The latter was to air its last episode in April but got an extension. However, the channel is now thinking it over. These shows are looking at premature exits as both producers and channels are unable to handle the mounting costs. “The channels are going through huge losses with no fresh content, so, are trying to shorten their line-up by axing shows that are not profitable, low on TRPs or exceed the budget of the channel,” the source signed off.


Still from Manmohini, Beyhadh 2 and Sooraj Barjatya’s Dadi Amma... Dadi Amma Maan Jaao!

Actress Soni Razdan on working with Alia Bhatt for the first time in Meghna Gulzar’s next, Raazi
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 23, 2018)

Mirror (September 26, 2017) was the first to report that the talented mother-daughter duo of Soni Razdan and Alia Bhatt will be reprising their real-life roles for Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi after they were spotted shooting for the Junglee Pictures and Dharma productions film at Pahalgam’s Government Civil Hospital, the oldest and only hospital in the picturesque Kashmiri town. Soni herself was vacationing in Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand, last year when she had received a call from Meghna offering the part of Teji.

“I can’t tell you how excited I was to get this opportunity. At the time, I knew that Alia was in talks with Meghna too, but I didn’t exactly know for what. Alia takes her work quite seriously and we have to pester her to get things out of her. We both have been waiting to work with each other for a long time now and I didn’t really care how big the role was,” Soni reminisces, adding that she was so looking forward to the film that she took good care of herself before she reached the sets.

Raazi is based on Harinder Sikka’s book, Calling Sehmat, but Soni is yet to read the book. “It was a dream to work with Meghna and she was very clear about her vision for my character. At that point, I didn’t have the access to the book, so I depended entirely on the brilliantly written script, but I would like to read it after the release of the film. I’m sure it will be another journey altogether and I would like to enjoy it independently,” she says.

Ask her on how she prepped up for the role and she says that since she’s Alia’s mother in real life too, it made playing one on screen relatively easy. “I remember this one scene, where I give Sehmat her nani’s jhumkas and tell her that she can choose not to do what she is doing, and she says that nothing is more important than the country. After the scene, I wanted to hug my daughter. I was so proud,” the veteran actress says.

The last time Soni was in the Valley, it was for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1985 thriller Khamosh and she was happy to return with another film featuring her. “I had gone to Kashmir with Alia when she was shooting there for Student Of The Year, and while we are aware that a lot has changed there in the last few years, it was fairly peaceful when we were filming Raazi. I truly believe that it is one of the most beautiful places in the world,” Soni adds.

The actress who was last seen in Sanjay Gupta’s 2013 crime-thriller Shootout At Wadala seems to have become really choosy about roles... “Not at all, I was just busy with something that I wanted to direct and maybe because of that people thought I wasn’t interested in acting. But I will never lose interest in acting and am always open to good parts,” she says.

And what is the status of her second directorial after the 2005-released Nazar? “I am scripting something, but I wouldn’t want to elaborate on it until I am ready with it,” she says.