By HT
Come June-end, and Ekta Kapoor’s hit TV show Bade Acche Lagte Hain (BALH) will take a five-year leap. The producer says the speculation is to herald some amount of “freshness” to the show. “When we started BALH, the plan was to run it for under 150 episodes. But fortunately, the show has done well. Now the challenge is: how you can take the storyline forward and maintain the freshness?” says Ekta, who has received a whole lot of hate mail for her decision.
She claims she hasn’t got this type of strong response from viewers ever since Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ended. “…after Mihir’s character died, actually. Not only me, everyone who's involved with the show have been on the receiving end. Starting from positive to negative, the reactions was extreme. My inbox has also been jammed. Honestly speaking, hate mail can get quite unnerving at times,” says Ekta.
The producer had even considered taking a six-month season break from BALH. “But in India, unlike the West, we don’t have this type of structure. Plus, we can’t keep making it dramatic with day-to-day happenings,” she insists.
Interestingly, roughly 20 episodes of the show (after the leap) may be set in Dubai.
“It’s going to be a fully different and new story. I’m going to switch all of the setting. It’s going to be a large step for Balaji Telefilms,” says Ekta, explaining why she needed to release a promo of the show post-leap a bit of urgently.
“There are some small ‘TV-special portals’ that keep updating false stories concerning the show. And that’s why audiences also get exposed to wrong information, which then results in such reactions. Audiences generally get attached to TV shows after which they get disturbed with such false reporting. That’s the explanation we've already released a promo,” she says.
