Colors is hoping to set another benchmark with its new socially relevant show, Udann.Raj Nayak, CEO of the channel, and Guroudev Bhalla, producer of the show, tell Divya Kaushik that the concept is aspirational and progressive
In the late 80s, a Doordarshan show based on the struggle of a woman aspiring to be an IPS officer inspired many women of that era. Calm yet passionate, determined and committed Kalyani Singh gave many a message that accomplishing one’s dreams should be everyone’s right, irrespective of the gender. The show was Udaan and probably it was the first Indian television show on women empowerment. Years later, we will have another Udann on the small screen. Though the issues addressed here are poles apart but the common factor is that even this one is going to be about a strong girl breaking social taboos and boundaries. It will be about hopes and dreams. While here to talk about the show, Raj Nayak, CEO of Colors, said, “We have been leading with our issue based shows like Balika Vadhu, which is now one of the longest running shows on TV, and with Udann we will present a balance between hope and hard-hitting issue like bonded labour. It is good to do shows based on social issues but at the end of the day we are a commercial venture. We also have to make a show that resonates with the audience, if we make the shows dark and depressing no one’s going to watch them. So we have to try and do shows in an engaging way where you have television grammar normal ingredients which entertain yet subtly take the message across. That’s the way we have conceived Udann, it’s very entertaining, aspirational and progressive.”
The idea of the show, which will be on air from August 18, was conceptualised 25 years ago by filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.
Bhatt borrowed the concept for the shelved film Girvi, but the film could not release.
The concept stayed with Bhatt’s assistant Guroudev Bhalla, who now has developed it into the story for the TV show and has produced it. The show is a heart-warming story of a free-spirited young girl and it talks about the social issue of bonded labour which is still rampant in some places of our country. As per the producer the situation has only worsened in the last few years.
Keeping in mind that it is a TV show, the story is told in a new, refreshing way. Nayak says that it is important to keep reinventing. “You have to stay true to yourself and keep trying new things. At Colors, we have not done anything that our competitors have done, they have done what we started. But as a channel we have always been inventing. Somebody told me that no one has done the talk show in the last 10 years and we went ahead and did The Anupam Kher Show, which has been a super success. We did Comedy Nights With Kapil and 24. So we keep trying new things and that’s what the audience expect from us, they expect the clutter-breaking, differentiated content, they expect us to be step ahead of others and that’s a huge challenge for us. Sometimes we get it right sometimes wrong, but we always keep trying,” he said.
The series stars young Spandan Chaturvedi in the main role of the child Chakor, Sai Ballal and Sai Deodhar-Arvind, who is returning to the small screen after a gap of three years.