You belong to a journalism background. What made you to enter into this field?

Journalism has its own highs and satisfaction. I wanted to tell stories, and no

t just to report them. Journalism is about reporting stories with your viewpoint. Fiction is telling your own stories. To be a journalist, you have to be a part of the system and being a producer, you can make your own system.

What kind of changes you have observed in this industry?

There had been a tremendous change. Zee TV had started when most of the channels weren't present. The changes happened in terms of scale and storytelling. It has reached much wider audience. A show reaches to the audience 10 times more than a blockbuster movie can reach. You become a part of their lives. The expression value,scale has grown up and the professionalism too. The most scientific approach towards making any show is not just a good story that you have but also a platform to tell. Its about the channel we are making it for, its profile, target audience, the trends. What kind of characters are missing and what kind of characters are need to be introduced. If I had to summarise television, the first phase came from Shanti, second phase started from Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, third phase started from Balika Vadhu and I hope that fourth comes from Veera.

What is the strategy upon which Beyond Dreams works?

Beyond dreams works upon a strong creative team headed by my wife Mamta. Our strategy is to make good work and good shows. We like to bring changes in our society and the teams woks out such stories. In our previous show Rang Badalati Odhani, we narrated the story in a different way. The punishment for the girl was to marry the man who was in a way responsible for killing her husband, we tried something different and it worked. The same can be seen in Veera and Junoon too.

You have also worked a lot on documentaries and short films. What kind of documentaries were they?

Those were based upon human interest. The innocence of people and the work environment has always excited me. I was a cartoonist so people's behavior and expressions have always excited me. Motivation behind making such documentaries has always been the idea. If we don't have any idea then we don't have any motivation.

Tell us something about your upcoming movie Siddhartha – The Buddha.

Right now we are concentrating more on television because television is too large. Once we are settled with out TV show, we will look after the film . We have researched and worked a lot on Buddha. The movie can't be made in a year. It will take time. It has to go through many processes and require a lot investment too. Currently, these two shows are very critical for us and we are focusing on them.

We have heard that a few names from the television industry are going to be a part of the movie. Can you tell us about them?

It is too early to talk about it right now. We will be coming with new short films too. Recently we made Kaalo which was the first horror film in the world which was shot in daylight and has won many International awards.

What inspired you to make Veera?

Veera was born out of a thought. In a lifetime, you need a million people and you make a lot of relations with them. There are certain bonds that are very innocent and one such relation is that of a brother and sister. It's almost close to a mother and son and a mother and a daughter relation. No such stories have been told on Indian television. So, we decided to come up with a show that has such an approach. It's a story of a brother who sacrifices his childhood to make his sister's childhood more fulfilling and he becomes a mother to her. That's why the channel came up with the tagline: 'Duniya ki sabse anokhi Maa.'

What's in the future track ahead for the viewers of Veera?

Right now we are setting a base for the story. As promised by the promos, the relation of Ranvijay and Veera will be shown in the forthcoming episodes. There is enough to tell about their childhood and when we will be done with their childhood, they will grown up.

How do you manage your personal and professional life?

Half of the things are managed as we are working together. Our kids are taken care off properly. Mamta helps me and I help her and that's how our life is being managed.

Can we have a gist of your upcoming show Junoon - Aisi Nafrat, toh Kaisa Ishq?

It's a story based upon reverse migration. The story revolves around a girl called Meera (Mouni Roy) who will go back to her roots to find her father. It will be India vs Bharat. The story will be taken forward by Akash (Ajay Chaudhary), Meera and Prithvi (Aditya Redij).

What are your expectations for both of these shows?

Since the last 5-6 months, it has been hectic just making the shows and there will be no ratings for the next 2 months. So, that's going to be hectic again. We expect people to like the show and should feel as if they are seeing something new and different. You will see a lot of action as in Bollywood. The viewers can have a gist of it in the very first episode itself.

Any new show in pipeline?

We have a lot of fantastic ideas. Once these two shows are well grounded, we will work at the others. Fiction is the central point for us. However there is no harm in trying something novel which we shall bring soon.

Reporter and Author: Anwesha Kamal