MUMBAI: Now that Raisinghani vs Raisnghani is coming to a successful end writer Anuraadha Tiwari pours her heart out and shares some interesting anecdotes. She says,”Honestly, a strange mix of joy and sorrow (I didn’t know I would feel like this!). Since this is one those rare times that I have lived a show from Inception to its end, I find it a bit personal. It has been part of my life for an entire year on a daily basis and so it became an extension of my Persona I think! Not only was I writing all of it by the end, I was also very involved with the edits and the post streaming conversations with the Fans Community Online (yes they are my friends now!). So it really feels like losing a Family. Yet, it’s a feeling of great satisfaction. Of having created something that gave so much joy and pleasure to so many varied people and for having seen it through, despite its highs and lows.”
But Anuraadha confesses that in the beginning she was not sure about its success. She says,” Honest to God, I never think about success and failure when I start writing something. It would paralyze me if I did and make me write it inorganically, based on what I think people expect out of it. I just write what I think is ‘correct’ for what I have set out to do and for what I think the client brief is. As for the ‘Success’. That itself is relative and can be described in many ways. Initially, the Show was in the Top 5 viewed for 4 weeks straight. It surprised everyone and me the most! It then settled into its long format run of months, across thrice a week. Everyone who was watching told me it was ( and still is) addictive. I had so many DMs begging it to be made into a daily streaming. Which it finally became! With a Bingefest over the weekend. To me that is heartening. But for me the biggest success has been all the embedded messaging that has been received by the audiences directly.”
The writer also shares what makes her satisfied as a creator for this series. ”When the discussion thread on Social Media is replete with what the Therapist in the show spoke and when the debate is over Toxicity, Forgiveness and Self Awareness with commoners discussing their own transformation thanks to a Dialogue or a Scene, I feel I have been super successful as a Writer. And when the lead ie Jennifer herself in an interview states that she has taken some Healing for her own self through some of her lines and scenes and evolved through the story, I feel the show has been a super hit.”
Talking about Therapy, the Show has addressed Mental Health in many direct and indirect ways. On this she says,”I have mentioned this before but Mental Health is a personal passion and part of my Life Purpose. I have trained as a Therapist ( non Medical) with several Certifications and heal people in my free time, so definitely to embed that messaging in my Stories is a key factor for me. To use Story as a Healing Tool is my focus. So when RVR came along and I had Anushka ( Jennifer Winget) and Virat ( Karan Wahi) to play with, I thought it was a plum opportunity to deep dive into all that I know about Psychology, to delve into the Empath – Narcissist dynamics and most importantly to talk about the many layers of a Woman who is seemingly empowered, privileged and strong and yet has all the vulnerabilities and insecurities in the world. It was my chance to show that ‘Good’ isn’t all one dimensional and boring and that ‘bad’ may just be a viewer judgment. In essence I did take all the stereotypes of television and gave them layers to turn them into global archetypes.“
The Show marked the on screen ‘reunion’ of Jennifer Winget and Karan Wahi after 14 years. On this hit onscreen jodi she says,”I swear, before I started writing, I was rather blissfully unaware of how successful Jennifer Winget and Karan Wahi’s pair has been. I had absolutely no idea about #jeran and the near desperation that the fans were having in waiting for their so called reunion from DMG ( Show called Dil Mil Gaye). Had I known that, I may have rewritten the Show entirely. Instead, I had a Story and I wrote an entire Season with my own conviction. By the time the first promos hit the platform and the deluge had begun, we had already shot some 24 eps. That’s 2 months’ worth of air time!!! So at that point to start buckling to Viewer demand and pressure would have been futile. Yes had it been TV, one would have probably stopped, reshot, rewritten etc. But this was practically a Web Show (or TWeb as I have named it). There was a definite, finite arc to it. There was a graph and a deadline. To change it course would have been fatal. And like a lot of TV shows would have affected the story mid way and made us go in circles. I chose to feed off their natural friendship instead. I observed them together and wrote scenes that would highlight their advantages. So despite humongous pressures, we wrote and shot what we believed in and eventually the Audiences saw what we were creating. They understood the depth of what we were giving that chemistry. They respected that we respected that onscreen pair in much deeper ways than just another Love Story and honestly, that is really the love we are taking away with the Show. Everyone who was either impatient or upset that we are not showing a traditional Love Story or not getting them together early enough is thanking us today and showering us with praise for what they are taking away in their personal lives as well. This feels like a personal victory I have to say.”
At the end the writer shares about the possibility of a second season. “ I can’t comment on Season 2, that is for SonyLiv to answer but I can assure fans that this Season is ending on a high with many new threads opening up. While we hopefully have a satisfying end to Season 1 we do have great promise for a lot more Courtroom Drama and to the title itself. You have to watch out to see which Raisinghani will stand up against which Raisinghani, both in the past and the present to continue the Drama into newer intrigues, while the True Love Story has only just begun.”
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