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InDepth headlines national business sports cricket regional entertainment technology world travel autos health | Ekta Kapoor ties up with MTV 10.12 IST 30th June 2004 By IndiaExpress Bureau 
In a surprise alliance, the queen of soap dramas and successful 'saas-bahu' serials, Ekta Kapoor on Tuesday announced a tie-up of her production company, Balaji Telefilms, with leading music channel MTV for their fiction serial Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi . Announcing a countrywide talent search for the new serial expected to go on air towards the end of September, Ekta Kapoor said that the MTV team along with Balaji would audition aspiring stars between the age group of 18 and 28, who dreamt of making it big in the world of television. "The serial looks at the life of a young girl from a small town who comes to city to make it big. Through the talent search, we hope to translate the dreams of real people on to the small screen," she said. According to Alex Kuruvilla, MD, MTV Networks India, the idea of teaming up with Balaji Telefilms came up when he met Ekta at a function. After a few discussions, the creative team of MTV sent across a proposal to Ekta, who sent back certain ideas which could be taken up for a serial. "We are constantly trying to be innovative and come up with new ideas and formats. We came up with the successful VJ hunt contest, the MTV Bakra programme, which was followed by MTV network in other countries. We now were on the lookout for a new idea, that is when we thought why not do a fiction soap and who better than Ekta to come out with a soap," he said. According to Ekta, the tie-up was a great challenge and it would be based on a completely new format targeted at a young crowd, the viewers of MTV. "It is like starting all over from the scratch again, because this time the target audience is different," Ekta said. The selection team would visit around 107 places around the country, including places where youth often did not have access to such talent hunt. The places include Rohtak, Shivpuri, Siliguri, Sonepat, Waynad, Yamuna Nagar, Parasia, Panipat, Dhanbad, Ferozepur, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur and Guwahati. The 12 shortlisted aspirants would then go through a training programme in action, drama, voice projection, camera moves. Six would be finally selected to play a role in the serial, which would have 39 episodes, Alex said, adding, there would now be "leap of 20 years in this serial". MTV would also capture the grooming of the selected aspirants as part of its 'reality show' and would air it on its channel for its viewers. "I am not looking for glamorous dolls but someone who appeals and one can relate to," said Ekta, who has made stars of relatively unknown faces. "This is a marriage of unexpected partners and I am sure the baby is going to be an exciting one," Alex said. Dismissing allegations that the serial was akin to her serials on middle class girls, Ekta said, "No, the format is different. Here it is of a small town girl and places itself on the moralistic angle. The serial looks at a person being comfortable with what he or she thinks is right and not what others think about morality". |
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