Qissago Telefilms, my new production house – brings with it a new journey for me as a solo Producer. Qissago means ‘story teller’, and it speaks about the one who narrates stories. Yes, the journey of coming up with my first show, ‘Nimki Mukhiya’ has indeed been adventurous as well as exhausting, considering the fact that I have been working on this concept for nearly one and half years now. We made the pilot last year in October, and we launched yesterday.. But yes, all is well that ends well!!
Speaking about the date, the launch date (28 August) comes as a wonderful coincidence!! On this day, I had my first play staged long back in the year 1988. Yesterday, it was the same day when I turned a solo Producer. So the date is really important for me.
Nimki Mukhiya is a love triangle with socio-political backdrop. It is about woman empowerment. The show talks about ‘freedom’ coming with ‘responsibility’. While we see the Government taking all means for the upliftment of women in the urban sectors, the case is very different in the rural areas. In the rural belt, women themselves do not take care of themselves. They are not using the power that is bestowed to them. This show traverses the life of Nimki who takes things very casually, but upon getting serious and realizing her powers, her whole personality changes. Power cannot be controlled, but it is to be realized from within. Nimki Mukhiya is about women empowerment with the tale of a love story in it.
It gives me immense joy when I start to talk about Nimki as a character. She is so full of life; she’s very new with respect to today’s TV scenario. There is a basic thought that village girls are not exposed to the world. But here is a girl who is a new girl from a rural backdrop away from the perception we have, of a village girl. Nimki knows how to use bluetooth and how to use new gadgets; she may not have fancy or branded gadgets, but she is well-equipped and well exposed to the current scenario. Above all, she is very positive.
Talking about Bhumika Gurung, she’s from Himachal, but plays a Bihari girl here. It was difficult for her to get into the groove of the character, because of the accent, language and local dialect. However, we have been working with her for the past seven to eight months. She’s gotten into the character very well. I can say that she is a great find for me. Nimki for me is ‘Suhana’ from the rural backdrop.
As Producer, I want to keep churning out shows. I am happy as a Writer, but any concept or story that I want to tell my way, is what I will produce. Otherwise, I will continue to write for others.
Talking about me, I cannot work with non-actors. That’s the problem of my writing. My writing demands good actors. Even in Sasural Genda Phool, I had the best of actors. And I choose only the good actors for my shows. I am really fortunate to have got a great bunch of talented actors in Nimki Mukhiya. I have many theatre accomplished actors as well as young faces. It is a combination of old and new actors, you can say.
As Producer and Writer, I will want to make a thriller kind of show, or a suspense drama. Also I wish to come up with a full-fledged comedy too. One thing is for sure, I will never make typical shows. That is not my cup of tea. I am not against such shows, but I can’t write, can’t produce or can’t relate to such concepts. That is my speciality or whatever you call it!!
The USP or the connecting factor of Nimki Mukhiya is its very serious subject that has been narrated in a very lighter way. It’s not gory, not morbid, yes the subject is serious, thought-provoking. The best part is that we have great characters to bank on. I am really hopeful that people will love the characters we have created. Apart from Nimki, we have many interesting characters. The characters are just not black and white; they are real, they have shades of grey and shades of white. We are dealing with varied subjects like corruption, politics, caste discrimination and all have been narrated in a very entertaining way. We have a triangular love story between Indraneil Sengupta, Bhumika Gurung and Abhishek Sharma. We have Rita Bhaduri playing the Dadi which is again a wonderful character.
Above all, I am very grateful to Star (Star Bharat) for having their faith on me and for giving me this opportunity. We hope for the best.
(As told to Srividya Rajesh)