While most production houses and channels prefer to shoot in Mumbai, there are a handful who not only love to shoot outdoors but also away from the mega metro. To give the viewers a life-like experience, Nadaan Parindey Ghar Aaja’s entire starcast and production team has shifted base to a village near Mohali. Sangeeta Yadav walked through the lanes where the shooting is on, to bring you a report
Mustard and wheat fields greet you as you drive into the Panjoli Khurd village near Mohali in Chandigarh. Not a new sight for those who live in this agricultural belt. But what makes these fields and this small village, with a population of just a lakh, so special is that it has been buzzing with activity after being turned into the location for the new soap Nadaan Parindey Ghar Aaja which is on air on life OK at 9 pm, Monday to Friday.
A dhaba, a haveli, a mazaar, a few huts and an Army outpost (border) at Ave Pura Pind are some of the props that the production house has set up to give it a real feel. While the haveli has been spruced up with a floor being added, painted and getting an open kitchen with the decor of a big house of the 60s, the dhaba has been newly constructed.
With a straw roof and mud brick walls it takes centrestage in the serial. Charpoys (cots), colourful buntings and frills add to the appeal. Called Bebe Da Dhaba, it is atypical of Punjabi food, serving as it does makke and bajre ki roti with sarson ka saag, butter chicken and naan and a glass of lassi.
“Around 200 workers were called from Mumbai to set this up. But then we needed more people. So we hired 80 locals. It took us around two months to construct the entire set on location. Iron, wood, plaster of Paris, cement sheets, we got them all for the construction. Since the serial is about the lives of people in a border village, a lot of focus has been kept on the structure. To create authenticity, I travelled to Attari, 3 km from the Indo-Pakistani border at Wagah, to get a feel of things,” Chokas Bhardwaj, production designer and producer of the serial, tells you.
The construction cost came to around `1 crore and that was the first time that cement was used to make a grid and railing.
The hunt for “the perfect location” started a year back with the option of setting it up in Amritsar initially. Unfortunately, the locals there were not open to the idea of a shoot taking place in their vicinity for months on end. Also the fact that they couldn’t find a large enough area where they could construct this village meant Amritsar had to be dropped.
Once Panjoli Khurd and Ave Pura Pind were finalised near Mohali, the team moved fast. A meeting with the landowner and the sarpanch was organised and a contract signed.locals were hired to clear the wilderness around the dhaba and a few hutments. “We wanted a rural yet stylish look. The USP of the show is the ambience. Our boys have done a great job,” Bhardwaj, who is the art director of shows like Mahadev, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, Sarrkkaar and Hello Brother, says.
The serial revolves around Sameer’s (Karam Rajpal) journey from being a zero to a hero with suspense and conspiracies around every corner. The production house didn’t have much trouble in finding their perfect village for such a storyline. The baseline was that it had to be a location with good connectivity.
But is it not a lot of trouble for the cast and crew to move out of Mumbai all the way to a Punjab hinterland, that too for such a long drawn schedule of months, maybe yearsIJ “The huge sets in serials like Madhubala..., Badey Achche lagte Hain and Sasural Simar Ka do attract the viewers. But with no or little outdoor shoot, they don’t look natural. The outdoors shoot trend is fast picking up in the television industry. Channels and production houses are going for outdoors and weaving serials around a particular town or village. We wanted to give our viewers a realistic setting hence the move,” Bhardwaj explains not wanting to comment on actors being cagey about such outdoors which take them away from the industry buzz and possible future projects.
Actor-director Imtiaz Punjabi says that setting up a show out of Mumbai does not only generate employability in a new State but also gives people a chance to showcase their talent.“From children to regional actors, every talented person has been roped in for this show. Thousands of struggling actors come to Mumbai with dreams of making it big but fail. We want to reach out to them and a mini TV industry in Chandigarh is a step in that direction. It will generate employment in the region and give them an identity,” he says.
But what happens to this done-up village once the soap endsIJ In most cases, everything is dismantled and used for other serials. In some cases, other production houses buy it. But sometimes, when the shoot is mostly outdoors, it depends on the terms of contract.
“The soap has just begun so to any talk about what will happen to the sets once its over is inappropriate. Most production houses leave the props behind as they are. But if the channel wants and the owner says that they need to be taken down it is done. For now, it is time only to build more,” Bhardwaj concludes.