Well known Writer and concept creator Mrinal Jha handles with elan the three popular fantasy tales on Star Plus, Divya Drishti, Nazar and Yehh Jadu Hai Jinna Ka.
Recently she had won 3 awards for her other on air shows Nazar (Star Plus) and Tara from Satara (Sony).
Says Mrinal, “Since both fantasy shows Nazar and Yehh Jadu had similar concepts about evil powers overtaking the good, it was very important for me create different creatures and tropes. So if in Nazar if we had the daayan (Monalisa) who destroys anyone she sets her eyes on, here we have a jinn and the saying goes that if you take help from Jinn, he always asks something in return and if you decline, there will be hell to pay.”
“Accordingly we had to create a Muslim backdrop to suit the cultural milieu. One big difference between Nazar and Jadu is that the latter is essentially a romantic story. But things get tough due to the world they live in. Aman (Vikram Singh Chauhan) really can’t love for he is cursed and Roshni (Aditi Sharma) will do what it takes to save his soul.”
Here Mrinal accepts that the pace of Jadu is quite fast, “But that was intentional as it is a start to end finite series which will soon wrap up. We could not go the normal path of slowly setting up characters as time is very less.”
“This tale again is poles apart from my third fantasy outing, Divya Drishti again on on Star Plus.”
“After a slow start this sister’s saga show too has picked up steam. “ I guess the fact is that both the lead characters are much more in control of things and have understood their powers, so are no longer simply reacting to things, but are proactive in situations.”
“The biggest challenge in any limited series fantasy is to come up with newer ideas and sub plots. Most importantly, all our written grandeur needs to be visually translated on screen, so you need to keep logistics and budgets in mind.”
In closing Mrinal says she is lucky not to have been told to change storyboard midway due to low ratings. “Having said that I do say that one must always be receptive to changes and suggestions. For sometimes despite having worked on a project for a year , after shooting we do realize that things can be done differently.”
