Ekta Kapoor's eerie weekends on Life OK

The press conference of Life OK and Ekta Kapoor’s eerie series during weekends, Ek Thhi Naayka was a gala affair where the cast of the series walked into the banquet hall on a red carpet with shutter bugs clicking them in rapid succession. A tarot card reader by the name of Eeshaa was seen predicting the future of journalists and actors, only to add to the ‘mysterious feel’ of the upcoming show. The event was well-attended with double the crowd of a regular press conference present. Konkona Sen Sharma who is the heroine in Ek Thi Daayan made an appearance for just a few minutes and left before the press conference officially started to attend to a personal emergency. The film also stars Emran Hashmi, Huma Qureshi and Kalki Koechlin who gave the event a miss. Amongst the Maha Naaykas to feature in the series on Life OK, Smriti Irani and Ankita Lokhande were inconspicuous by their absence at the show launch. When asked as to why they could not make it to the press conference, Ekta explained, “Smriti is busy at the parliament. Despite her hectic schedule she promptly agreed to do Ek Thhi Naayka. She will fly to Mumbai and shoot at night and attend the parliament during the day. Ankita is busy shooting for Ek Thhi Naayka today.” Ekta was faced with the usual question as to whether her TV series was promoting superstition and misogyny. The Czarina of TV replied, “These are fictional stories based on Indian folklore from various parts of India. When vampire films are made by Americans as that is the folk-lore in their country, in no way do we accuse them of promoting superstition and misogyny, do we? Also each and every story of ours will come with a social message.” The TV icons will be seen in myriad avatars from various Indian states and regions. Smriti Irani, for instance plays a Gujarati character, who brings to the small screen unknown tales from the western state. Ankita Lokhande will be seen in a tale from Maharashtra that depicts the folklores from the state and the Bengali beauty Mouli Ganguly will enact a Bengali lady from her native province West Bengal. Ekta claimed that all the glamorous eight TV stars in Ek Thhi Naayka just took five seconds each to confirm that they would be a part of the project. A poster of Ek Thi Daayan was unraveled at the press conference. The film script has been based on the short stories written by Konkona’s writer and journalist father Mukul Sharma. According to Ajit Thakur, General Manager, Life OK, “TV needs films and films need TV. In TV people at home have to be drawn into watching a show whereas in films, you need to draw out people from the house to the cinema hall.” Life Ok has come up with a unique marketing strategy to woo viewers out of the house to watch the upcoming supernatural movie Ek Thi Daayan which has been co-produced by Ekta Kapoor and Vishal Bharadwaj. Life Ok’s Ek Thhi Naayka, an eight-part TV series starring Smriti Irani, Sakhi Tanwar, Mouli Ganguly, Ankita Lokhande, Kritika Kamra, Shweta Tiwari, Pooja Gor and Aamna Shariff will air every weekend at 11pm starting from 9 March on Life OK.