'Kyunki...' takes 20-yr-leap, Tulsi to don mantle of 'Ba'

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Mumbai, (UNI): Popular soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, which started the trend of 'saas-bahu' concept in serials will take a 20-year leap from June with the focus shifting from its protagonist 'Tulsi' to her grand daughter-in-law.

Under the changed format, Tulsi's character, enacted by Smriti Irani, will don the mantle of 'Ba' the senior-most person in the Virani family in the serial, Balaji Telefilm's creative head Shivangi Chauhan said.

With this the focus will shift to Tulsi's grand daughter-in-law Krishnatulsi, the character being based in the religious city of Hardwar.

Smriti said, her character has come a long way from an 18-year-old girl to a 55-year-old woman, but she has no qualms of having to paint her hair grey in the serial.

''In fact, I had asked for it when the first leap took place.

But, I was told that 55-year-old women in today's times colour their hair, so it is not neccessary to have grey hair for my character,'' she said.

On her getting bracketed in the older character image, Smriti said, ''If one is confident about his or her talent, such apprehensions do not matter.'' Meanwhile, Shivangi said the original character of 'Ba', till now played by Sudha Shivpuri, would die as the show takes a 20-year leap and her place in the family would be taken by Tulsi.

She, however, denied that Balaji was unneccessarily dragging the show.

''Our serials are not never-ending. We have closed down serials, which have not done well. Kyunki...was the number one serial when it started and continues to be so even today. We are still on air because the audience wants it,'' she maintained.

She also said they have conducted auditions for selecting 10-12 new faces to be introduced in the serial as a part of its 20-year move.

The present track of the show will also end with Tulsi moving out of the Virani home and she will be shown as raising up her grand daughter-in-law in Hardwar.

On the new move, Balaji chief Ekta Kapoor said, ''We started 'Kyunki... five years back with a large part of the cast selected from the masses and most of them, today, are well established artists with their own fan following. It, therefore, makes complete sense for us to go back to the people to look for the next generation of the Virani family.''

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