Rebooting Pehredaar for new rishta, Sumeet Mittal bullish on good content

Shashi-Sumeet Productions is back with its new show, ‘Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya’, on Sony Entertainment Television. The show, which went on air this week, is a reboot of the controversial show, ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’, which had to be taken off air earlier this year following several flak received for its storyline which involved the marriage of a nine-year old boy to a girl twice his age. Not only that, the boy is also shown romancing the older girl. 

‘Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya’ has retained Tejasswi Prakash in the lead as Diya, who is now the pehredaar of an age-appropriate Ratan Singh. The rest of the storyline is similar to ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’ – Diya gives her pledge to Ratan Singh’s dying father to protect his son from people who want to kill him. But she doesn’t get married to Ratan to protect him. Ratan Singh (Rohit Suchanti) is a college-goer, getting his education in London, while Diya has metamorphosed from the cockroach-fearing coy girl to a strong individual, who does not fear to wield the sword when need be. 

Set in the sweeping royal canvas of Rajasthan, ‘Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya’ is a finite story. The show also features Jiten Lalwani, Girish Sachdev, Siddharth Shivpuri, Aditi Deshpande, Harmeet Kaur, Meenu Ranchal, Achherr Bhaardwaaj, Kasturi Maitra, Manisha Saxena and Varunn Jain in pivotal roles. 

Speaking about the concept of ‘Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya’, Sumeet Mittal, Founder & Director of Shashi Sumeet Productions, said, “The show has a very simple concept, which is to do with a noble character. It is about a girl who lets go of her feelings, desires and dreams and dedicates her life to an oath that she has taken to save some other person’s life.” 

On using the same starcast of ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’ for the new show, Mittal said that he had decided to use the cast as he had promised to retain them when ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’ was discontinued. “It was not their fault that the show went off air. They did their best. So, I thought that it was my moral responsibility to get them back for ‘Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya’,” he maintained. 

With the memories of the severe backlash received by ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’ not too far from one’s mind, Mittal insisted that this time, there was nothing as such which the people could pinpoint. “If you see the promo, the title of the show, there is nothing as such which we need to safeguard. It’s a fresh show,” he added. 

‘Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya’ has not been planned as a finite series, as informed by Mittal, who said, “It is a regular show and till the time the story has potential, we will keep on telling the story.” 

The show doesn’t target any specific genre. Being a drama, it is meant for the entire family. 

When asked how challenging it was to garner more eyeballs in the highly competitive media consumption landscape of today, Mittal replied, “I always believe in making good content, and that’s what everyone’s focus should be. If one goes by the number of viewers, I think one can never deliver good content. Sometimes there are successes and sometimes there are not, but one should not shift from the focus of delivering good content. Viewers are evolving, but I don’t think that viewers are shifting from television to web series or vice versa. We are getting new audience every day. So, there is appetite for all kinds of content. Web series have got their different audience, while our audiences are different. So, there is nothing to worry about it now and also in the near future.”

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