Ex | Tete`-a- tete with dynamic Producer and Director, Neelima Bajpai

With plethora of shows to choose from, Indian audience today is much more choosy and picky. Catering aggressively and tapping all the needs and demands of the viewers, Shakuntalam Telefilms is creating a buzz quite literally in the market. Having known to produce epic dramas and family shows, the production house has been consistently producing shows for almost all the leading Hindi General Entertainment channels may it be Colors, Star Plus, Sony or Zee TV.

Founded in 2004, they have produced shows like Reth (off-air now) on Zee TV, Bandhan Saat Janamon Ka (off-air) on Colors TV, Me Aajji Aur Sahib (off-air) on Imagine TV (the channel is off-air now) and a lot more. Some of the notable shows include Na Aana Is Des Laado on Colors TV, Love Ne Mila Di Jodi on Star Plus, Sapno Se Bhare Naina on Star Plus and Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke on Zee TV. All the shows not only did wonders for their respective channels but also helped the production house make its presence felt in such a competitive scenario.

When we talk about Shakuntalam Telefilms one of the notable names that come to our mind is Neelima Bajpai who is the Producer, Shakuntalam Telefilms. We at Adgully thought of going a bit more close to the dynamic lady and understand her journey so far and her plans ahead.

On describing the journey of Shakuntalam Telefilms, Bajpai said, “The journey so far has been really good and at this point of time I can strongly say that we have tried and experimented a lot of genres apart from reality. From our very first show to the latest one, every show has a different story line and concept.”

Very soon, the production house will be seen experimenting with another concept of depicting a soulful journey of a housewife with ‘Hello Pratibha’ which will start from 27th January on Zee TV. When asked about how did the idea came up, she said, “The idea came up while researching for some other show wherein we got to understand the fact that how a housewife takes a charge of the daily living of her family. Then we also realized the fact that there is not a single show towards those lines.”

Having done some of the really out of the box concepts like Na Aana Is Des Laado on Colors TV, Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke on Zee TV, Bajpai is really betting big on Hello Pratibha. “The show is different and will one of the very first shows on this concept. The narrative itself makes the show stand ahead of the curve.”

Interestingly, when Hello Pratibha went to various sets of audience to understand whether the concept is good or no, Bajpai told us that the response was very encouraging and the show was praised quite well.

Also, as Na Aana Is Des Laado is claimed to be one of the successful shows out of their kitty and the show undoubtedly had a good run initially but later on the storyline got monotonous and the show somehow lost its sheen. Stating her viewpoint here, she said, “Well I won’t say that Na Aana Is Des Laado lost its charm. It was shifted to an afternoon slot looking at its popularity and loyal audience base thus we had to make changes as per the new time slot. Likewise, when we realized that the core crux of the show has been delivered to the audience, we took the decision of taking it off-air.”

As we all know today with overabundance of shows, the viewers get an opportunity to choice among wide range and the chances of switching also increases. When asked how she reacts to such a competitive space, she said, “The biggest challenge is to hit the right chord at the right time. Every slot today is equally competitive and what can make you stand ahead of the curve is the concept of the show. The concept and the story line have to be really clutter breaking.”

Being a director and a producer is quite of a big responsibility and addition of duties, isn’t it? When asked Bajpai, she said, “Yes it is but multi-tasking is what is in demand these days.” When asked about the other concepts she is working on and other shows in the pipeline, Bajpai said that they are working on concepts but these days it takes pretty long to start a show so she can’t really say when things will happen but work is definitely on. Looking at the growing need and demand of finite format they would also be open if something comes up on those lines. | By Aanchal Kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli