Have any of you visited ‘Kweensland’? By Kweensland, I mean our dearest Ekta Kapoor whose K-serials have managed to enrapture almost every Indian. With the advent of Balaji Telefilms, the face of Indian soap’s has undergone a sea-change. Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi – India’s longest running tele-serial which got every Indian woman glued to the TV set during the prime time and then their series of K-serials… Believe it or not but it actually altered the lives of most families. Every routine and schedule was adjusted to incorporate 9pm to 10pm as TV time. Can you imagine watching 5 generations together in a span of 15 min (assuming the rest 15 min are ad’s)???? This reminds me of the bollywood number (Govinda’s song) – IT HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA!!

When I met Shobha Kapoor during an interview, I asked her what’s with the ‘K’ obsession? I was expecting some answer related to astrology, but to my surprise, it turned out to be that they ran into a few consequent hits, each title beginning with the letter K, so they just decided to continue the K-saga. So there was Kasauti Zindagi Ki, Kasam Se, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, Kutumb, Kayamat etc.

For those of you who still haven’t guessed my next stop, well it was Balaji Films – India’s largest tele producer and one of the few tele-production houses who that have forayed into films. Their latest movie, Love Sex Aur Dhokha (LSD) has received excellent ratings from the critics. This movie also proved Ekta’s mettle as a film producer and not just a tele producer. It seems that Jeetendra Kapoor refused to attend the screening Ekta organized for the film fraternity on the note that he was too busy, but later caught the movie on the sly with some of his friends. He loved it. < Link…> And for those who plan to watch the movie only because of the name…sorry guys, there’s actually very little of it in the movie…. Such is life dearies!!

Balaji owns almost 32 studios in Mumbai and each of these sets get re-used and re-modified according to the storyline of the serial. These days, even other serial producers and film producers have been eyeing Balaji’s sets. What got me really intrigued was the grandiosity of each set. Each haveli captured the essence of the family, be it gujrathi, rajasthani, muslim, bengali or our very own chawls of mumbai’s. The colour, décor, furniture, the wall hanging’s – every minute detail! Ekta is indeed a perfectionist. Infact their most realistic set, is that of the current hot favorite Pavitra Rishta. Actually we were quite lucky, when we went to their Mahabharat set in Filmcity, they were shooting for Pavitra Rishta. The hero being quite a cutie..some of the girls in our group went gaga over him.

Actually someday I should write on intricacies of tele-making. It’s a different ball game all together and a lot more hectic than film producing.