The GKLB Article Thread!

[noodles]

Post all GKLB articles you can find here! Articles ONLY, please NO COMMENTS. :)
Thanks.

[noodles]

Deeraj Kumar Interview (Producer of GKLB)



Saluting the daughters of India

Ashish Mitra


To some, daughters are a boon, to some they are a bane. There are people who still believe that sons are better than daughters but it has been proved, with time, that daughters are equal if not superior to sons. To prove this point Creative Eye has produced Ghar Ki Laxmi Betiyaan for Zee TV. The channel hopes that the serial will make viewers look up, sit and ponder on the point of gender discrimination. Screen chats with Dheeraj Kumar to find out more about the serial...
What enthused you to make this serial on gender discrimination?
Look at the crimes happening on girls day in and day out. (hands out a copy of a morninger that exclaims ‘baby killers of Punjab’). Look at how manual labourer Gulzar Singh exhumed baby foetuses from a pit outside an abortion clinic. This I feel, is one of the grisliest chapters in our country’s fight against female feticide. Read in the newspapers or see TV news and you will find either a baby girl abandoned, killed or a teenage girl raped. Plenty of atrocities keep happening on girls round the year. All this stirred my mind no end and the result is Ghar Ki Laxmi Betiyann.

Tell us something about the serial?
The serial is set in a Gujarati family. The house is a traditional Gujarati house where the entire Garodia family stays. The family comprises four young teenage girls who fight all odds and emerge winners in any given situation. Through the serial we have attempted to address the ever-persistent issue of gender discrimination in our country. Highlighting certain myths that exist in society, we have fictionally tried to put them to rest.

Can you elaborate on the story?
It’s not just one story, there are many sub-plots that we have inter-woven into the main story. The serial will show how girls are no less than boys in any field. We have women like astronaut Kalpana Chawla, Supercop Kiran Bedi, writer Arundhati Roy, journalist Barkha Dutt, producer of serials Ekta Kapoor, sportsperson Anju George, film stars Shabana Azmi and Madhuri Dixit who have all excelled in their respective fields and more as women.

The show’s promotional peg is Betiyann beton se badhkar.
Yes, but there’s no negative side to it. The narrative will stay within the moral parameters and aesthetic values of our culture and will desist from predictable plot extensions like much married characters, cheating spouses that drive most serials today.

Why did you cast Sa Re Ga Ma participant Twinkle Bajpai?
Zee TV recommeded her. We found her to be the ideal lead for the concept we were then working on. After auditioning her, I agreed with them and cast her as the main lead.



Why did you tie up with Zee this time when your Jodee Kamaal Ki was on STAR?
For sometime Zee TV has been showing woman-oriented serials in its prime-time slot like Saat Phere and Dulhan. I think Ghar Ki Laxmi Betiyaan is the right serial to be teleacst in the primetime slot.

http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=13645

[noodles]

Actually married?

The ongoing shaadi sequence in ‘Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyaan’ (Zee) was so traditionally done that the whole unit thought that Bhavishya (Kartik) and Sarswati (Kshitee Jog) were actually married. The series director, Rajan Shahi, says, “For the first time in my career, have I attempted such a sequence and made it so authentic that everybody on the sets thought that they had actually got married.”

Rajan arranged for a real pandit to shoot the wedding scene and made all minute details--like the placement of the kalash on the mandap, technicalities of the kanyadaan and the timing of the pheras to be at 2. 30 am--were true to Gujarati tradition and customs.

“I asked Kshitee and Kartik to take 11 pheras to undo the sacred bond they have been unknowingly got tied into, what with the pandit not taking any shortcuts to complete the ceremony,” quips Rajan.

‘Weddings are integral to any soap but my aim was to keep it authentic. Right from the engagement, haldi and mehndi function and in coming episodes, the bidaai scene will also be shot in the same manner,” says Rajan.

This wedding segment, shot over a period of month, has got the entire unit of the show comprising of 50 juniors and almost 20 actors bond like never before. ‘With the bidaai being shot , the feeling of loss is already setting in and even Kshitee mentioned that she hopes all will go well with the new set of actors who now play her in-laws,” signs off Rajan.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1067536

[noodles]

Kshitee Jog of Ghar Ki Lakshmi-Betiyaan ran scared of shooting a scene on domestic violence, and just couldn't get it right.

Ranjib Mazumder


Gol maar: Kshitee Jog http://cms.mumbaimirror.com/portalfiles/1/12/200612/Image/151206/tv1.jpg

The shooting of Ghar Ki Lakshmi-Betiyaan was stalled recently thanks to Kshitee Jog, who plays Saraswati in the serial. Even after several retakes, Kshitee could not get a domestic violence scene right and the director decided to stop shooting for an hour. An unhappy Kshitee started crying on the sets.

Says Kshitee, "Actually, the scene was a violent one, where my husband throws alcohol on my face. Initially, I refused to do the scene. But later on, I realised my responsibility as an artiste and finished the shoot. Thankfully, all the crew members were very supportive. It's very disheartening to know that domestic violence still prevails in our country. Moreover, being the only child in my family, I have always been pampered a lot. I just could not relate to my character in the show."

Kshitee adds, "I was a little unhappy with the way I was being treated on screen. In fact, the whole unit was upset while doing the scene. My co-star Kartik Sabarwal, aka Bhabishya who was bashing me up, kept apologising after every single shot. But, I could not get my expressions right and requested them to stop the shooting. I got so upset that I started weeping."

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=12&contentid=2006121502165723483a01cb9

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http://cms.mumbaimirror.com/portalfiles/1/30/200703/Image/260307/e9.jpg
Women rights activists on the sets of Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyaan


The sets of Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyaan witnessed women rights activists staging a dharna, thanks to the regressive storyline. Lately, the track has shifted focus to Kshitee Jog aka Saraswati who is set ablaze by her husband. Needless to say, the graphic details of the fire scene hasn’t gone down well.

The shooting at Magnum Gold Studio (Andheri East) came to a grinding halt for five hours. Later, the actors and the crew members were seen holding talks with the protesters. However, all their explanation of the soap being a piece of fiction fell into deaf ears.

Mandar M Oak, the executive producer of the show said, "We really have no clue how they came to know about the place of our shooting. They marched in and we couldn’t shoot for hours. It was definitely uncalled for. They demanded an explanation for demeaning women on the small screen."

Nevertheless, he explains that such brutal scenes should be incorporated. "It may be shocking for the people of Mumbai, but these are common occurrences in smaller towns and interior parts of our country. Although grotesque we can't deny the reality. The suffering of women in our society marks the base of the storyline," says Oak.

Actress Kshitee Jog believs that such sequences help in holding a mirror to the society. “I sincerely believe that we are showing what really happens in our country. Women are still burnt alive for dowry. My mother in the serial will take a stand after a few episodes and I am sure this will help people understand the intensity of the problem."

However, the current track has garnered high TRPs for the show. "We have got very good feedback for our show. People had warned us about the fire scene backfiring. But we wanted to stick to our basic storyline, no matter what comes our way," adds Mandar.

[kiranp]

Thanks for the article

[noodles]

Anytime! Please post more if you can find them guys!

[noodles]

http://www.mid-day.com/ArticleImages/images80/Ashvini2910200601836.jpg

Tanushree Kaushal
Menaka in Ghar ki Lakshmi: Betiyaan

Menaka is the evil choti ma to four girls. She’s jealous about the money spent on them and wants to keep the wealth all to herself.

Are you jealous in real life?
I am very bindaas, my funda is sab kush raho. Being one myself, I can’t be mean to women.

Do you think the show is conservative?
Even in modern-day families, there’s a very conservative side. Being a beti has its set of responsibilities. I think somewhere deep down inside, every family is still orthodox — yeh ghar ghar ki kahani hai.

How do people react to your character?
At a shoe shop, a woman noticed me and called me names. She went on to give me some moral gyaan, even though I told her it’s a role. I ran from the shop. But mostly people come up and say good things about the performance.

How have you kept your character different from other vamps?
It’s very subtle. She is sugar-coated — there is no direct maliciousness. Nothing about the dressing, makeup or acting is loud.

Are you the same at home?
They do pull my leg about it. My mom keeps saying, ‘Okay, now you can stop acting.’ The usual fun stuff; nothing to get serious about.

http://www.mid-day.com/smd/play/2006/october/145686.htm

[kiranp]

Thanks for the articles

[kiranp]

I'll surely post the articles if i get more

[noodles]

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Web/HTMumbai/Article/2007/03/29/538/29_03_2007_538_005.jpg

[ilovedesi]

Thanks so much for all the articles! :D
Keep posting them

[kiranp]

Thanks for the article
Keep posting more:)

[kasamse-fan]

hii

Thrice duped!
By: Shaheen Parkar
June 20, 2007
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http://www.mid-day.com/ArticleImages/images93/yatin2006.jpg

Cell-shocked: Yatin Karyekar

Yatin Karyekar who played Iqbal’s (Shreyas Talpade) father in Nagesh Kukunoor’s film of the same name and also features in Kukunoor’s next venture, Bombay To Bangkok, had an harrowing experience recently.

In the course of a single week he was almost robbed — thrice! “It may sound strange but it was as if my face sends signals: come and steal my stuff!” says the character actor.

“I really don’t know how to tackle this. If I had managed to hold on to even one of the thieves, I could have marched to the police station.”

Cell-mated

The actor was intercepted at different locations in Andheri and the target was his mobile phone. “I have now realised that these cell thieves have a modus operandi.

In the first instance I was stopped at the Andheri-Kurla road. They know how to target the motorists. I was at the wheel and my phone was lying on the seat next to me.

A guy just stopped the car and told me to see there was something at the rear of it. But even before I could get off, I realised that another guy was putting his hand through the window (it was half open) to take my mobile. I screamed and they fled in seconds.”

Later, he became a victim at the Four Bungalows market road. “The place is packed so it is even difficult to chase anyone as they disappear among the numerous hawkers on the road there.

This time as there are so many people crossing the road, traffic moves at a snail’s pace. One of the pedestrians springs up in front of the car and then screams in pain saying that you ran over my toes! This is only to distract attention because soon as you get off all eyes are on the handset in the car for which another member of the gang springs for.”

Yatin claims that during this incident he had a minor scuffle with the two boys but they ran off and disappeared in the crowd. The third instance happened on Bhardawadi Road which leads to SV Road in Andheri.

“It is a one-way road and the gang again diverts your attention to scoot with the cell. But this time I was very cautious and they could not fool me,” says Yatin who also features as Suryakant in the Zee drama Betiyaan.

Lesson learnt

“I just want to warn people and the cops about this band of thieves lurking in Andheri. Next time I am the victim, I will make sure to get hold of them and hand them over to the cops,” he concludes.

-sonia-

[kiranp]

Thanks for the info

[kasamse-fan]

Thanks for the info

ur welcum ...

-sonia-