Desi Robin Hood axed! Barely two months after it started, Zee TV’s Keshav Pandit, a Balaji Telefilms production,will go off air in a few weeks. Read on for more...
Two months after it started, Zee TV’s Keshav Pandit will go off air in a few weeks. The production house, Balaji Telefilms, was informed 10-15 days ago about the decision, which was made "amicably".
Producer Ekta Kapoor confirms and says, "I’ve been busy with my film Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai that releases next week. I was informed about the show coming to an end approximately two weeks ago but then, it’s all right. I was always kept in the loop about the show’s progress." Zee TV’s head of fiction programming, Sukesh Motwani, reasons that the show wasn’t delivering in the 8.30 pm slot on Saturday.
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"We were quite happy with the show and the way the episodes were going. Sarvar Ahuja was impressive as Keshav Pandit. But the show couldn’t stand against competition from the mahaepisodes of other popular shows on competing channels.
Naturally, after the initial weeks, it lost out on the TRPs and now, we’ve decided to axe it," he informs. Ahuja says that the unit has been informed about the decision too, but is still shooting episodes for the next few weeks before the show is called off.
“In a couple of weeks, the show will be off air. But we’re still shooting. I am feeling bad about Keshav Pandit’s exit but as actors, we can’t do much,” he says, hinting that the show may return with a second season.
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Empty spaces When asked, Motwani says that the empty slot will be used for mahaepisodesof popular shows on the channel and also for other original programming. “Shows like Keshav Pandit find it difficult to compete with popular soaps,” he says. “But it doesn’t mean that we’ll not bring in new shows for the 8.30 pm slot on Saturday. As of now, nothing has been decided.”
Keshav Pandit was based on Ved Prakash Sharma’s novels, popular in Northern India, that revolve around the detective who is a desi Robin Hood.
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