I get shows as a producer only because I am a writer too: Pearl Grey, producer, Spellbound Productions

The beautiful and lovely Pearl Grey, who has singlehandedly managed to make a show like Pratigya change the scenario of a single woman in our country. Given a chance to see a strong woman, fighting all difficulties only with her sheer confidence and will power, Pearl became a household name as a producer. And as she gears up with her new show Doli Armaanon Ki on Zee TV, she spoke to Tellychakkar.com about the show and why she had to drop her plans of making the much anticipated Pratigya 2. Excerpts… Tell us more about your new show Doli Armaanon Ki? This is a beautiful show about a girl Urmi played by a Jhansi based girl Neha Marda. Having been brought up in a small town, the only dream this girl has is to get married to the man of her dreams and live a happy nuptial life. Although being educated and smart she is ready for an arranged marriage and live a life with the man her parents have chosen for her. On the other hand, the guy she is getting married to Samrat Rathore, even being the youngest son, has had to take the responsibility of his failed family business and managed to bring it to a great position. He has no space for love in his life and when he gets married to a girl who lives in her dream world, the story expresses their journey and complications in their marital life. At a time when even uneducated girls want to get professionally strong, do you think that girls with a sole dream of getting married actually exist? Of course there are a lot of such girls. See, I am not claiming that such girls exist only in big cities but then our show is based in a small town in Jhansi where such girls can be found in plenty. Right from childhood they are given a thought that they will have to get married to a guy their parents choose. So happily agreeing to it, they start dreaming about their perfect marriage, husband, in-laws and her sweet children (smiles). Even I had such dreams; all I wanted was to get married, have kids and live a happy life with my family. Then what made you a career woman? (laughs) That’s a different story altogether. When marriages don’t work, you automatically have to look for options to make yourself strong and independent. What is the USP of your show? The show is very simple in approach and kept close to reality. Also, even though it has dramatic twists and turns, there will be no melodrama, it’s all very subtle. The audience is surely going to love this show and will be surprised by every turns the show takes. This is not a predictable show and after Pratigya people will not be disappointed with the quality of content with this show. What made you drop the plans of Pratigya 2? Oh! that was a disheartening experience! With the pilot being approved, we were all set for the show when the channel decided that they wanted something completely different. Wanting just the brand of Pratigya, they were keen on having a completely new cast and team for the show. It might work for others but I wasn’t convinced. We wanted to tell a special story and if not that, we weren’t interested. This show also basically has your Pratigya team? Since I have worked with this team for a long time, I am most comfortable with them. And we also understand each other’s work and so we work to our best as a team. And I don’t see anything wrong in that too (smiles). This show was announced in haste. Comment? Earlier I have worked with Zee and thus we know each other quite well. So when we got a chance, we finalised things and got started. And thankfully everything fell in place perfectly. And what about choosing Mohit and Neha as your leads? I think they both suit their characters perfectly. Neha has done some wonderful work on TV and after getting married took a slight break, but when this character was made out, I think Neha suited the bill completely. As for Mohit, since we had worked with him in Pratigya we knew his caliber and this good looking guy suited our Samrat perfectly. His character is not one that is easily seen on TV. What kind of shows would you now like to go into? See basically, I started my career as a writer and so understand the pulse of the audience well. After working on daily dramas, I want to try my hand in a show like Tara. An independent woman dealing with the world alone makes for a wonderful script. I feel I use a part of my life in every show I make and guess I will continue doing so. Any plans of stepping into youth shows along with the dailies? Most definitely! I think I am gearing up to make some show for a youth channel that will completely focus on the today’s generation. Channel V has some wonderful shows and am sure that we will churn out a show for them too. Today it all depends on content and being a writer I understand that completely. Interestingly, I also feel that I get shows as a producer only because I am also a writer.