Zee’s new show Do Saheliyan is set in the sands of Jaisalmer and in rustic Rajasthan

Zee’s new show Do Saheliyan is set in the sands of Jaisalmer and in rustic Rajasthan
If a few years ago, stories of super-rich Gujarati families were TRP drivers, of late it’s Rajasthan that seems to have emerged as a strong competitor to Modi’s Gujarati pride, though other states are not lagging behind too far. If the earlier shows presented far-fetched, unbelievable and contrived tales of relationships and conflicts, the current shows are somewhat closer to reality in terms of stories and settings. While Zee’s earlier TRP driver Saath Phere was the story of a dark-complexioned girl set in a Rajasthani family, it was more of a fellow traveller than a trend- breaker. It was Balika Vadhu that broke the trend by default. Since then everyone is following it by design, including Zee.

Class divide is a strong backdrop for storytelling. Caste is another. A combination of both is even more lethal. Setting could be incidental. But when you have two shows set in a particular state backdrop that have done remarkably well over the last one and half years on close rival channels then common business sense demands that you walk the same road instead of taking another. So currently Rajasthan is an easy route. But to avoid becoming a bit clichéd you need to give something different than the others. So the golden sands of Jaisalmer for a backdrop and a story of friendship between two innocent girls who find joy and happiness in each other’s company but are oblivious of the worldly considerations of caste, class and the politics of prejudice makes an interesting story. And a history of nasty family feud provides an added sandstorm effect.

There is also an element of destiny as well. The two friends get married around the same time and in a strange accident of fate their husbands get swapped. How they chart out their lives and whether the friendship will stand the test of time, trials and tribulations is what the show is all about. According to Zee’s head of fiction, Sukesh Motwani, Do Saheliyan is a beautiful story of friendship set in the midst of caste and class conflict and the backdrop is incidental. “But I couldn’t think of a better backdrop than Jaisalmer because of its beautiful, expansive and rustic charm,” he says. Nitin Vaidya, business head and COO, Zee Entertainment, exudes more confidence, “It is a simple story of friendship between two girls, the challenges it must face and how destiny finds their paths constantly intersecting in the most unusual ways. I have no doubt that the engrossing narrative and picturesque backdrop will captivate viewers.”

According to Nitin, Zee has always endeavoured to capture and represent the rich culture of the country through varied stories and diverse settings. “We tell universal stories set in identifiable backdrops. We are in the business of good story- telling and not playing the game state by state. Numbers are the by-product of vision and our vision is bigger than the numbers that follow,” he claims. In a way, he is right. But vision is nothing without numbers and often keeps changing to chase numbers. It also becomes bigger with bigger numbers. You just can’t play the GEC game if your focus is not mass-oriented, though admitting it can be little difficult and denying easier. After all, some shows shut in six months if ratings don’t come and some go on for years because they deliver numbers, no matter which of them tells a good story.

Sanjay Upadhyay, the show’s director who returns to his first love after a long hiatus, doesn’t deny that numbers are as important as good story-telling. “If you are a mass general entertainment channel then you have to target maximum eyeballs. But how you target them is equally important,” he says. Sanjay is in no way a revolutionary. But he prefers to stay away from the herd if he can’t join it. However, in his view the current herd is better than the earlier one. And he promises to tell a good story while admitting that his eyes will be wide open to the numbers that will follow. After all, in the business of entertainment, vision is nothing but an ideology of eyeballs.