Mumbai: This year's Ganesha festival was very special for soap opera queen Ekta Kapoor as she brought her first Ganpati in her new home and her serial Karam Apna Apna went on air on STAR Plus.
"It's my first Ganpati in my new home. I couldn't have a better celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi. I'd just had a pooja in the morning, dinner with close friends and then went to Tirupati the next day to pray for my new serial Karam Apna Apna,” Ekta said.
As for her new serial Karam Apna Apna, Ekta says it's a full-on Balaji brand of entertainment.
"Karam is a simple identifiable story. We wanted viewers to get something to chew on. I won't call this show different or out of this world. I'm accused of becoming distanced from reality in my recent shows," Ekta said.
"Well, Karam is real. But I can't move too far away from my style. Finally, my sensibilities will show on my shows. People say they find Kkasam Se very relatable. I think they'll say the same about Karam," Ekta added.
And why is actor Iqbal Khan as the main lead?
"Well Karam will have its hero in an extramarital affair. My hero should look like someone for whom two best friends would be fighting over. Iqbal fits the bill. It's a very sweet and innocent story,” Ekta said.
Iqbal's other daily Kaissa Yeh Pyarr Hai for Ekta on Sony will go off air in a couple of months.
However, Ekta says she hardly has anything to do with the new Smriti Irani vehicle.
”Thodisi Zameen Thodasa Aasman, which went on STAR earlier this month is very unlike what I do. Full credit to the writer Kamlesh Pandey and Smriti Irani plus the STAR executives like Shailja Kejriwal for this authentic serial. As for me, I've just lent my name to Thodisi Zameen,” Ekta said.
Karam on the other hand is entirely Ekta's baby.
"You have no idea how many auditions I've conducted until we found the right girl for Karam,” Ekta said.
Ekta hunted for a new face in Simla, Jaipur, Surat, Pune and Delhi and finally found Pallavi Subhash in Mumbai.
"We wanted a face that was pretty and yet next-door like. Then one day I happened to see a show called Tumhari Disha on Zee. Pallavi came on for maybe 30 seconds. And I said, 'This is the girl I want for Karam’. My mom nearly threw a fit. Can you imagine? We hunt high and low and finally we find her in Mumbai on television."
Tumhari Disha where Pallavi played a minor role has ended.
"And a new chapter has started for Pallavi. She's a complete Balaji kid. We're shooting with her now. She's Marathi but she's playing a Bengali girl from Kolkata. Pallavi does lapse into a Marathi accent but we control her. We'll manage in the dubbing,” Ekta said.
So is Pallavi another Balaji actor who'll soon start throwing her weight around?
Ekta shakes her head. "I hope not! See, the stress of suddenly shooting night and day takes its toll on the actors. I love my actors and my shows. I hope I never lose my energy level with them."
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