'I'm happy to be back on Sony'

Soap queen Ekta Kapoor breaks her cold war with Sony Entertainment and is starting a fresh innings on the channel.

Television soap queen Ekta Kapoor has broken her cold war with Sony Entertainment and is all set to start a fresh innings on the channel with the new series Kuch Is Terah, a desi version of Cinderella and Maid In Manhattan.

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The TV tycoon pooh-poohs the allegation that she abandoned the channel.

"Abandoned? Not at all! It's just that we were busy providing lots of software to STAR. Now I'm happy to be back on Sony with a daily and also a reality show that goes on air in February 2008. The guys out there, Kunal Dasgupta and Albert Almeida, are among the best I've ever worked with," Ekta told IANS.

The reality show tentatively entitled Ticket To Bollywood promises to be unlike anything seen on TV. But Ekta prefers to talk about Kuch Is Terah, which she says is unlike anything she has done on the soapy stratosphere.

The show also marks the return of Sudha Chandran, who was recently ousted from Sony's celebrity dance competition show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, to Balaji Telefilms. She was last seen in Kahin Kissi Roz.

"She's so talented. And I'm so happy to have her back in our company. We need all the acting talent we can get," said Ekta.

"The show is a mixture of Cinderella and Maid In Manhattan. Dimple, a 19-year-old debutante from a very ordinary middle class household, say, from the Byculla area of Mumbai, meets her prince charming.

"It's like Jennifer Lopez in Maid In Manhattan meeting up with Ralph Fiennes. The only problem is, there's a disapproving uncle, played by Akashdeep Saigal, on the scene."

Ekta says she has never produced a serial that is so rooted to the middle class.

"This is my youngest, most realistic soap ever. It captures the dreams and yearnings of every middle class girl in India. The heroine's family has characters straight out of real life. There's the heroine's sister played by Tarana."

Meanwhile, she has decided not to produce software for NDTV's ready-to-launch entertainment channel.

"Not right away," she clarified. "My hands are full. But Sameer Nair and I are collaborating on something big for 2008."