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NEW DELHI: Star Plus channel's latest soap opera "Sasural Genda Phool" revolving around the life of a rich spoilt girl who gets married into a conservative family goes on air from March 1.

The serial is a light-hearted story of Suhana (Ragini Khanna) who loses her mother at the tender age of five and grows up under the shadow of an indulgent father, essayed by Mahesh Thakur. The doting dad agrees to her every whim and fancy.

However, he wants her to marry Ishaan, an Information Technology professional. After much dilly-dallying, Suhana agrees to tie the knot with Ishaan, who comes from a conservative family. This is in contrast to her own liberal, upper-class upbringing.

An amalgamation

According to scriptwriter Mitali Bhattacharya, the serial is an amalgamation of her observation of today's new generation and her creative imagination.

"I have a 21-year-old son at home and I interact with a lot of young people living in the city. The character of Suhana has some facets of these youngsters and I have used my own imagination to make her interesting."

Though Suhana breaks expensive crockery and shouts at servants, the scriptwriter insists that she is not a bad girl.

"In fact she has a heart of gold. She understands the meaning of a relationship and what it means to become a member of a new family after getting married," said Mitali, at a press conference here on Thursday.

As for the accusation that the serial's title has been borrowed from Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra's "Dilli 6", Star Plus head content strategy Gaurav Banerjee said it was purely co-incidental.

"We have not deliberately lifted the title from the Bollywood movie. The title was catchy and we thought it would increase the curiosity level of the viewers. Though the A. R. Rehman's song was quite popular in 'Dilli 6', it is actually a folk song. When I was growing up in Madhya Pradesh it was quite popular. As for the copyright violation, we have taken all necessary permission," he adds.

Completely different

On the charge that the serial has been adapted from a serial "Ogo Bondhu Sundori" on Star Plus Bengali channel, Gaurav said it was a successful serial in West Bengal and the story has been replicated in the Hindi serial with changes in the characters of the star cast.

Ragini Khanna, who was selected for the role through an audition conducted by producer Ravi Ojha, said her role was completely different from her character in her earlier serial "Bhaskar Bharti".

"In that serial I was shown as a man who gets transformed into a woman. So the two characters cannot be identical by any stretch of imagination."

The serial also stars veteran actor Sudhir Pandey as a 75-year-old grandfather who is full of beans.

"I am the family's patriarch who shares a funny relationship with my wife Gayatri. The duo provides comic relief as they are constantly sparring with each other."