Ashvini Yardi's 'Color'ful journey

TV veteran Ashvini Yardi, who called it quits as Colors programming head today, is following in the footsteps of many TV actors and professionals who have hopped on to the film bandwagon as a natural creative progression. On television, she has been behind some classic programming moves at both her current charge and on Zee TV – which she creatively steered before she joined Colors. At Zee TV she opted for shows such as Saat Phere, Sailaab, Kasamh Se, Sarrkar, Teen Bahuraaniyaan, Banoo Main Teri Dulhann, Ghar ki Lakshmi Betiyaan, Banegi Apni Baat, among several others. She also conceptualized the cult singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge and Lil’ Champs before leaving to join Colors. At Colors, she brought in path-breaking shows such as Uttaran, Balika Vadhu, Bigg Boss, Khatron Ke Khiladi, Veer Shivaji, Laado, et al and took the new channel zooming to the No 1 spot for a few months last year, giving Star Plus senior management sleepless nights. She took the bold step of shifting the programming paradigm along with Colors CEO Rajesh Kamath by basing her fiction shows on rural themes when most channels were focusing on urban storylines. She highlighted sensitive social issues like child marriage, female infanticide and farmers' suicides. Additionally, she also brought on reality shows that were strong on the adventure, fear quotient and human emotions – which worked very well for Colors. Even as she announced her resignation, she was helping Colors bounce back to the No 2 slot which it had conceded to Sony for more than five weeks. And that was primarily because of her support for an initiative to bring in an all-female-with-one-male cast on Bigg Boss 5 worked well with audiences. She was also instrumental in bringing in Sanjay Dutt to partner Salman Khan on the show. The lady, who could have very well been on screen herself, has built very strong relationships with the likes of Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, Farah Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Juhi Chawla, Sajid Khan, Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor, and scores of other technicians and producers. Now she will be bringing some of those relationships to bear when she makes movies for herself with Viacom 18 Pictures which is a sister outfit of the company which runs Colors. Get ready for some magic to hit the big screen!