Producer Raakesh Paswan “is elated” on Afsar Bitiya winning the award for the Best Programme with a Social Message at the 11th Indian Telly Awards

Village Boy Productions’ Afsar Bitiya on Zee TV won the Indian Telly Awards for the Best Programme with a Social Message. Tellychakkar.com talked to the producer and writer of the show, Raakesh Paswan who expressed his happiness on getting the award. “It is a great satisfaction to receive the award for being the Best Show with a Social Message, mainly because this is the pitch of the story. Though I am excited on winning this award, I always felt I should have bagged an award earlier for Bhagyavidhaata or Baba Aiso Varr Dhundo. But then it is fine, and I am happy that I have managed to get one for Afsar Bitiya”, stated Raakesh Paswan. Talking more about the concept, the producer averred, “As you know, this story of Afsar Bitiya has been inspired by the real life story of my sister, who is the BDO of Jharkhand state. When she got appointed, the excitement level in our whole family was high, and this incident had always been close to my heart.” And on the unusual way in which the show got approved, Raakesh stated, “I had a meeting with Sukesh Motwani of Zee TV wherein he asked me to work on a youth show. After two weeks, I went to him with a youth based concept and narrated the story to him. He found it interesting and approved the concept. And then when I was about to leave, I just told him that I have one more interesting concept in mind. When he asked for details, I simply told him that it was based on education. For a moment he was stunned, but then he asked me to narrate. And this is when I narrated the concept of Afsar Bitiya to him. He immediately took the decision to go ahead with it, and asked me to work on the concept. And the rest is history (smiles).” Three cheers for the Afsar Bitiya team!!!