Earshot

But rather than accepting that fact, the PR department is bragging about the serial’s popularity, and claiming (believe it or not!) that it has been shifted to be pitted against Antakshari! They further claim that Let’s Yahoo will definitely topple Antakshari from its pedestal. But they seem to have forgotten one small point — Antakshari is not at 7.30 p.m., but at 8 p.m.!

High note

Raman Kumar’s Deewar has hit a musical note, but of a different sort. After Pankaj Udhas appeared in Saahil and Talat Aziz took to full time acting, it is the turn of Jagjit Singh. He appearsat the beginning of every episode of Deewar as a narrator talking about the dilemma faced by the characters in the serial. But Kumar denies that he is there for novelty value. "We felt the need for a representative: Jagjit Singh is the inner voice of each character," explains Kumar.

TV savvy

Shabana Azmi is appearing on television talk shows more often than in movies. In the last week she has been sighted on Ru-Ba-Ru with Rakesh Shukla, Editor’s Choice with Anil Dharker and with Simi Garewal on her eponymous Rendezvous with Simi Garewal. And Vinod Khanna seems to be going the same way: last week he was on Anuradha Prasad’s new talk show, Let’s Talk With Anuradha Prasad and this week he graced Rajat Sharma’s Janta Ki Adalat. Talk about variety.

In and out

Mukesh Khanna’s Shaktiman is in the news again — for the wrong reason, of course. The rumour is that director Dinkar Jani has walked out and actress Vaishnavi has been thrown out. ButKhanna insists that Jani’s exit is temporary. He had a cataract operation and will be back soon. Says he, “Frankly I don’t care. All I know is that Shaktiman is popular.” But he didn’t explain if Vaishnavi is in or out!

Pause PM

People who watched Prime Minister’s address to the nation on DD1, last Sunday were falling asleep because of its longevity (did you notice that the only photograph adorning the set was Mahatma Gandhi’s?). Also, if you closed your eyes and simply listened, Vajpayee’s intonation was poignantly familiar. He sounded like another Prime Minister. None other than the man who once said that Atalji would rise to the highest office in the land: Jawaharlal Nehru. Meanwhile, the PM’s pauses between sentences are getting longer. If he’s not careful, they’ll become longer than his sentences.

Alternatives

The producers of Maharana Pratap have climbed off their high horse. They started off the serial with the claim that all shooting has been done at real locations likeBikaner, Jaipur and ancient forts in Rajasthan. But that was not enough to draw in the viewers or the advertisers. Even after the serial was reduced to half-an-hour from the initial one hour, they could not make profits. So now the unit is shooting at good old studios in Film City, Mumbai. It may be a poor imitation of Rajasthan, but it is much cheaper!

— Murli Sharma with Shailaja Bajpai