| Avinash Sachdev and Rubina Dalaik |
It's a unique twist to a Hindi serial. Chhoti Bahu(Monday to Friday, 7.30pm on Zee TV) has staged a return with the same lead pair of Dev and Radhika. Not in the same avatar as telecast in 2009-10, but with a new storyline. "Mind you, the show itself is not back as the rest of the cast is different. What we are retaining is the world ofChhoti Bahu where devotion is a way of life," explains Sukesh Motwani, head, fiction programming, Zee TV. Like in the first season, Radhika will remain a devotee of Krishna. "If her love was like Meerabai's, that of a devotee for the lord, this time it will be like Radha's — as a friend and lover," he adds. If the setting was Varanasi then, this time it is an equally holy town of Rawal, near Mathura, which is said to be Radha's birthplace. The show's lead pair of Avinash Sachdev and Rubina Dalaik are delighted to be back on screen. "I had started hunting for new shows when this offer came," beams Avinash Sachdev. "It is all Krishna's blessings. My prayers have been answered," laughs Rubina. She claims she had a gut feeling that a miracle would happen. "I had told Avinash Chhoti Bahu could not end like this. I could not accept that a show which was drawing a TRP of 3-plus at a non-primetime slot of 7.30pm, would be shut down, that too on a 10-day notice." In the first season, the flamboyant US-returned Dev Purohit (Avinash) was pursuing Radhika, the adopted daughter of a temple priest. But Radhika had set her heart on Lord Krishna and in Dev she saw the earthly incarnation of her love which endured a post-marriage forced separation and various other trials and tribulations becoming of a daily soap. "My character is more educated and unlike the submissive Radhika of last time, I am independent enough to give voice to my opinions," says Rubina. "This time I am an adopted son and am being treated like a servant," says Avinash. Damini Kanwal Shetty, the creative director and writer of the show, admits that it would have been far easier to pick up the storyline where the first season had ended. "A twin of Radhika had been introduced. She could have taken the story forward. Now it is as risky as starting a new show," she says. But Avinash is positive. "In the opening week itself, we have notched up a TRP of three. It is because we left on a high that audiences flooded the channel with mails forcing them to bring us back." What is the greatest gift that Chhoti Bahu has given them? Rubina and Avinash promptly name each other. "Within a month of the show being launched we realised we belong together," says Avinash, matter-of-factly. "But on the sets, she is just a co-actor and right now our focus is to make the show work," he signs off. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110311/jsp/entertainment/story_13696117.jsp
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