Vrindavan in a box

TELEVISION: Rajshri Productions, famous for cinema entertainers of the late 1980s and early 1990s, searches for big time success on Star Plus.

As the new show Pyar Ke Do Naam, Ek Radha, Ek Shyam debuts on Star Plus on April 3, it's not just India's leading entertainment channel but a big film production house that will also have its fingers tightly crossed. For: it's the first time that two media sovereigns Star Plus and Rajshri Productions have come together to produce a television show.

However, this is not the first television production under the Rajshri banner. It had tied up with Sahara One last summer for Woh Rehnewali Mehlon Kii. But that was seen as an experiment.

The new venture with Star is being interpreted as a decisive shift to television for a production house that became famous for its cinema entertainers in the '80s and '90s: Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.

Rajshri now has a dedicated team for television production, headed by a member of the Barjatya family ""Kavita Barjatya, 29, daughter of Kamal Kumarji Barjatya.

"Television is certainly big on our agenda," says Kavita Barjatya, "But this isn't our first foray into the medium. Rajshri had come up with a serial Paying Guest as early as in the 1980s on Doordarshan." While that show did well, Rajshri preferred cinema as its mainstay.

So what makes television so attractive now?

"You know, I read a FICCI report which stated that while 55 per cent of entertainment was provided by the television sector, films provided only 26 per cent. Watching the way the television industry has been moving, it was a conscious decision of the family to branch off into this sector," says the young Barjatya who's been a professional singer and Kathak dancer.

Meanwhile, the project that's foremost on her mind currently is the venture with Star. "Rajshri's audiences primarily comprise the middle class and the middle aged women. So our television content is aimed at all these audiences who may not be able to visit cinema halls," says Barjatya.

Directed by Kaushik Ghatak "" who has also directed the successful television serials "" Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Sanjivani; and written by Shashi and Sumeet Mittal, Pyaar Ke Do Naam... is based on the mystical concept of reincarnation, in this case of two characters Radha and Shyam, powered by the eternal force of unconsummated love.

Besides featuring a host of popular television faces, the show will mark the comeback of veteran actors Tabassum and Ramesh Deo (Amitabh Bachchan's doctor friend in Anand).

With promises of a lot of music, unique moments and a new flavour in television story telling, and riding on the airwaves of a highly popular mass entertainment television channel, it could draw a big initial audience.

How sustainable it proves as a TV serial may depend on less obvious factors.