First there are back-to-back leaps within a week. Then, the lead pair gets separated yet again. Thrice married Ram Kapoor is all set to marry all over again. Priya has been in coma, indulging in philosophical soul talks with her dead ma-in-law. Pihu has changed face thrice in just a month! Indeed, Sony’s flagship show is nonplussed. DEEBASHREE MOHANTY wonders if BAlH’s falling standards have triggered Sony’s plummet from 4th to 6th position
For someone who believes in her shows and supports it come what may, Ekta Kapoor seems to have no clue about how to go about Bade Ache lagte Hain. “No comments. We are still planning the way ahead. It’s too early to say anything,” Kapoor replies to our repeated SMSes. Only six months earlier she had defended her shows position vehemently — “Bade Ache... was always about the love story between Ram and Priya and it will stay that way. We are working on a water tight script and many things are going to unfold soon,” she had said in June this year.
Only a week later the show took a 10-year leap and Ram-Priya became estranged again. Since then there have been numerous leaps and many twists that have not made much sense. “By the time a character grows on you, she is changed and there is a fresh face. We have hardly accepted Priya having three children and they are already being shown as teenagers. Strange characters appear and disappear in a matter of episodes. Then the old ones come back to haunt you in different avatars. Imagine Sid in a good role! It is very difficult to catch up with BAlH nowadays,” Mihika Rao, 34-year-old working professional, says.
There are many like her who are going away from their earlier watertight 10-10.30 pm slot reserved for BAlH. Here are some needle points:
Priya kya haal haiIJ
Priya has been in coma ever since the third leap happened. At present her status is undecided but many feel she will make a second coming, or is third or fourthIJ Ekta, after all, is very adept at miracles, including the secret ones like settling an actor’s issues with her bosses.
As for the actor, she is busy wrapping up her commercial endorsements in her free time. But mind you, “I am not taking a break nor am I quitting the show. I will be back soon, when the time is right,” Sakshi Tanwar says.
Wahi to madam, when is the time going to be right to make a comebackIJ “It’s Ekta’s and the scripts writers call completely and I have tremendous faith in them. The show was her idea and she has a plan for it,” Tanwar adds. For now, she is keeping busy with a new show which she will be anchoring.
Titled Mujhe Panckh De Do, it is produced by Bolt Media & sponsored by Johnson & Johnson. The series will showcase the stories of real women who have battled all odds, achieved their dreams and made a name for themselves. The achievements of Anjali Bhagwat, Ekta Kapoor, Deepika Kumari, Ritu Beri and Chhavi Rajawat will be showcased.
Bollywood directors, however, have to wait a tad longer because Sakshi hasn’t figured out yet what kind of role she would accept. Recently, she turned down a role where she was to play a sex worker. “I am not built for that kind of a role,” she said.
Pihu, pihu boley
This one is a real sore point. From the cherubic Pihu, to a conniving adolescent to now a fully bigdi hui adult, this role has seen the maximum changes. In comparison, only Anurag Basu of Kasuati Zindagi Kay can come close to such knee-jerk transformations.
When the makers decided to rope in Aanchal Munjal to play the vivacious with shades of grey adolescence in Pihu, the audience were quite pleased. Munjal was an accepted face after her stint in Parvarish.
But only after 16 episodes (three weeks) there was a further leap. Munjal was rumored to be replaced by Shritama Mukherjee. Overnight she, too, changed and in walked in Fenil Umrigar who found the call a huge surprise too.
She told Sunday Pioneer on an earlier occasion. “Everyone has shades of grey. This is a challenging role,” Umrigar said. Alas! Eight episodes later, she was out and in walked Sonia Balani. The reasonIJ
“Fenil was uncomfortable playing a negative shade,” was all the production house would say. Can a Pihu with staying power please step inIJ Many say Amrita Mukherjee was the best Pihu they enjoyed.
“There were many people who wrote to us saying they wanted her back in any role possible. It was sad when she had to leave the show,” Sonali Jaffar, BAlH’s story writer tells us. She adds that many times characters have to be changed owing to their schedule changes. “It doesn’t work in our favour either. It is all the more difficult to work with a new face. But in the TV business, we have to be prepared for such changes,” Jaffar adds.
TRP’s down syndrome
When the show first hit the airwaves, TRPs soared to four points — the maximum any show on Sony has ever got. The serial managed to keep up a healthy TRP throughout the first few years with a standard 2.3 points. Bade Ache... became Sony’s flagship show and the production house was all happy-happy.
In 2013, TRPs dipped to as low as 1.3 in May-June and couldn’t rise from that downfall. The makers tried everything in the book — merged shows (with Parvarish) even promoted the show on other platforms but nothing could arrest the falling TRPs.
“Sometimes, it is better to go with the basics rather than experiment. BAlH’s USP is its lead pair and their love story. Why did the makers include other elements into the showIJ Buniyaad was a hit but how many changes did we see with a given time frame in that showIJ BAlH should have followed that path for a little longer before diversifying,” Rajendra Kaushal, a popular script writer and Bollywood screenplay artist, says, summing the BAlH mess.