If Jaan does not work, people might think that Madhubala's success was a fluke: Producer Saurabh Tewari

Nautanki Telefilms and BAG Films have joined hands yet again, after the success of Colors’ Madhubala, to launch another love story on Life OK, Do Dil Ek … Jaan. In a conversation with Tellychakkar.com, producer Saurabh Tewari (Nautanki Telefilms) speaks about the challenges he faced while shooting for Do Dil Ek Jaan and his expectations from the project. There are very few people who prefer working on larger-than-life concepts on the small screen and Saurabh is one of them. When asked about it, he said, “Jaan is an extension of what we did in Madhubala. I think every person has a way of narrating a story and my style is making it look larger-than-life. I would want people to know my style of making shows, so that when I make my third serial, they’d immediately make out that we are producing it.” It’s a love story again? “Madhubala’s story is that of a film star who balances his personal and professional life. While in Jaan, the issue is of Kashmiri Pundits and that of migrants in big cities. Both the shows do not have any similarity, it’s just that mode narration is the same,” he answers. This show is also a huge responsibility on Saurabh’s shoulders as he states, “Too many things are at stake for me for if it does not do well people might think that Madhubala’s success was a fluke.” The producer has cast newcomers as the leads of his show hence when we asked about the same, he avers, “For me Vivian (Dsena) and Drashti (Dhami) were also newcomers as both their shows Geet and Pyaar Ki Yeh Ek Kahaani were on Star One and they went off-air because of dipping TRPs. As far as taking newcomers (Ayaz Ahmed and Nikita Sharma) in Do Dil is concerned, it is challenging to work with newcomers because you have to teach them certain aspects, but the plus point is that they do not come with a baggage. There are no stars on TV; it’s content that works.” You also managed to get veteran Farooque Sheikh? “He was not keen initially as he believed that in television business actors are not allowed to leave the sets early. On our insistence, he said he’ll shoot for just 20 days and we agreed. He also asked for a very huge amount and we agreed to that too. Next, he told us that he wouldn’t come on the sets before 11 am and we gave it a nod too. That’s how we finally got him on board,” Saurabh laughs. “But he has decided of not working on TV again. It so happened that we had some 15 days patch work left and we had to complete that in Mumbai with him. Therefore, we created a mini set of Kashmir in Mumbai and decided to shoot everything in a day. Farooqueji had to change 22 costumes in a day. At the end of it he said, I made a mistake by taking up a TV project; won’t do it again (laughs),” he concludes. We wish you very good luck… Saurabh.