Adgully Exclusive | My aim is to write stories that appeal to people: Purnendu Shekhar

For this writer, scripting the Balika Vadhu story wasn't a problem. He grew up listening to the tales about child marriages back home in Rajasthan. Why even his own mother was married off at the tender age of 15. His mother was married off at the tender age of 15.

Meet Purnendu Shekhar!

Well versed with the social set-up and customs of Rajasthan, It was easy for Shekhar to pen down serials Balika Vadhu, then Saat Phere, which was aired on ZEE.

But Baalika Vadhu was a turning point in his career. In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Shekhar talks about how he has been fortunate to been writing stories, which create an impact in the society.

And Colors provided him the perfect platform to showcase his talent.

"I'm so fortunate that I'm working for colours. There was no interference from the channel when I was writing for the show Balika Vadhu. They had full confidence in me and I had the same in them, and hence Balika Vadhu is what it is today," he says.

"My aim is to write stories that appeal to people and target a wider section of society," he adds.

And channel too gave him full freedom to experiment with thought process and how the story should proceed.

"The channel guys never interfered. It was my thoughts that were flowing in. Ashvini Yardi, Channel Head, Colors, was my colleague at Zee TV. When she joined Colors, she told me she wanted me to think of something for Colors.

"So I could remember of something I had thought of which was based on child marriage, and I mentioned it to her. After thinking for a few seconds she said, "Ok, let's go ahead with this idea,'" he reveals.

What Balika Vadhu did was that it changed the viewership on television and even channels ventured out to new places, which otherwise they wouldn't have.

Post Balika Vadhu, one could see a lot of serials following rural themes.

"Once this very famous film director had said that, "A hit film will prove to be as disadvantageous to the film industry as it proves to be advantageous."

It so happens that just because a theme proves to be successful, many people try to inculcate the same theme and churn out an unsuccessful film or serial. Post Balika Vadhu many serials have come up with similar themes with a rural feel to it. I guess I will have to end the trend by writing on a new theme," he explains.

With a wealth of experience in writing, Shekhar has written for many shows such as Imtihaan, Jazbaat, Astitva- Ek Prem Kahani, Saat Phere, Saathi Re for Star One, Grihasti and Jyoti.

But Shekhar never ventured into writing for movies largely because of the fact he is caught up writing stories for serials.

"When I came to Bombay, there were no private channels. I wrote for two films, but the experience was very bad," he reveals.

"It's not that I never thought of writing for films, it's just that once you start writing for serials you don't have enough time. Writing for serials is very time consuming, because if you are writing for one serial you have to write 22 episodes in a month, if you are writing for 2 serials you have to write 44 episodes in a month and so on.

"Besides I don't want to write for films right now because of the trend in today's mainstream commercial films. Some of the recent few commercial releases though have been better," he adds.

With the serial going to take a five year leap, and so are the expectations as new characters will pitch in and they will have to maintain the same standards that the older stars had created.

But Shekhar reveals that there won't be any major changes since it's just a leap of five years. "No, there won't be any drastic changes because it isn't a generation leap as such, just a leap of five years. The only change can be seen in Dadisa'a character, because she was old already now she will be older by five years. And the artists acting in the serial are so good that the change in age will be seen through the performances, hence we didn't need to change their look. In terms of look, only some of the women will now be wearing sarees," he explains.

So does that mean that Anandi's life be a happy story from now on?

Well Shekhar says happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin. "The serial is more of a biographical nature, hence when one narrates life. Sadness is as much a part of life as happiness. So the story from now is still going to be Anandi's perspective on life, but it's just that Anandi will see it from an adult's point of view," he says.

So rest assured that one can see lots of twists and plots in the story but at the same time Shekhar insists that he will not compromise on his story line.

"It is important, because every high pitch drama is received well. If there isn't a twist the audience starts losing interest. In spite of that I have never compromised on my story line or theme till date, and I will never do it," he insists.

And as far as future projects are concerned, Shekhar is working on a story board for ZEE, which happens to be a fictional story.