Perfect timing - Dheeraj Kumar

Dheeraj Kumar who owns the production house Creative Eye has done it all. Whether it is soaps or mytholigicals, Dheeraj Kumar has been there done that. His two current shows Maayka and Betiyaan have their own loyal fan following. And now Dheeraj Kumar gets ready with his new offering titled Waqt on Sony. We talk to him exclusively about his new ventures. Tell us something about your new show Waqt? Well this is very sensitive subject. It focuses on how important a male child is in our society. The show is an attempt to explore and understand the importance of girl child. We are also trying to say that a blood relation is not the only strong relation in the world. There is a relation which is formed due to karma. The message of the show is in its tagline, Aap ke rishte khoon se nahi karmo se bante hai. Could you elaborate more on the story line of Waqt? It is the story of an adopted girl called Rudra. Vishwajit Roy and Yashomati want a girl child after having four sons. Vishwajit finds this girl on the temple stairs and brings her home. Initially Yashomati loves her but due to the influence of others she starts hating Rudra. Then the story takes a turn and slowly Yashomati realises the importance of Rudra when her sons abandon her. Why did you cast Mukesh Khanna in the father's role? On television we always see the same faces and thus audiences get bored. It was me who introduced Mukesh in films and since then we always shared a good rapport. I took him in this show as he has a powerful personality and the right face that I need for Vishwajit Roy's character. As in the show he will be a man who controls power. Another important factor was that Mukesh was not seen on television since long so this would be a change for audiences too. What made you zero down on Payal for the main lead? We took number of auditions for the role of Rudra and Payal fit this character. She is from Calcutta and is very familiar with Bengali customs. She has a typical face Bengali face with big eyes and also knows some dancing which was essential for our main lead. Was Kishori Shahane your first choice for Yashomati? Well actually Roopa Ganguly was my first choice for this character but it did not work out. I wanted a face which is evil but at the same time has that tenderness also. Roopa has a little hard face with a strong jaw line. She is a good actress but then she was not the one for Yashomati. Kishori has also has that strong jaw line but with that she has the softness that perfectly fitted in the character of Yashomati. You shows Maayka and Betiyaan focus on daughters and so does this one. Why this daughter fixation? The story line of my two shows is very different from Waqt. Talking about women oriented shows today girls have achieved a lot, you can see them in every field and we believe in showing that. Moreover the acceptability of such shows is faster. Television has become more female oriented in the same way that films are more male- oriented. We are not portraying women in a superficial manner but through a show where audiences can relate and identify with the characters. What are your upcoming shows? Mythological shows are back and we too have a show called Maa Vasihnodevi on 9X. Beside that the two shows currently on air are Veeranvali on 9X and Humari Bahu Tulsi on Doordarshan. We are going to start a new show on NDTV Imagine very soon. We also have a show on Star Vijay in Tamil. As the reality show trend is also at its peak is Creative Eye trying their hand at this too? Yes, there is a reality show lined up but I can't speak about it as it's too early to talk about it. Earlier we had Jodi Kamaal Ki which was very different from other reality shows. About my new reality show I can only say that its not a music or dance related show. Besides that it's not a formatted show but an Indian concept with emotions as an important element. The show will go on air after one and a half month.