Meri Durga

Meri Durga (translation: My Durga) is an Indian television series on Star Plus created by the director turned producer Ravindra Gautam along with producer Pradeep Kumar under their own banner Paperback Films starring Ananya Agarwal, Vicky Ahuja, Srishti Jain and Paras Kalnawat.[1][2] The show premiered on 26 January 2017 and went off air on 17 March 2018.[3]

Meri Durga
Genre	Soap Opera
Created by	Paperback Films
Written by	Madhu Bastola Raghuvir Shekhawat
Directed by	Ravindra Gautam
Starring	Vicky Ahuja Ananya Agarwal Srishti Jain Paras Kalnawat
Country of origin	India
Original language(s)	Hindi
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	383
Production
Producer(s)	Ravindra Gautam Pradeep Kumar (producer)
Production location(s)	Haryana Punjab Mumbai
Production company(s)	Paperback Films
Release
Original network	STAR Plus
Original release	26 January 2017 (2017-01-26) – 17 March 2018 (2018-03-17)
External links
Hotstar

Plot

The story traces the journey of a Durga who aspires to become a runner. It revolves around the most beautiful and sensitive relationship of a father and his daughter. Highlighting the realities of life, Durga's father, Yashpal Choudhary works as a peon in one of the schools in Haryana. His only dream is to fight against all the odds and educate his daughter Durga for a better future. But despite trying hard to study and prove herself, Durga couldn't reach Yashpal's expectations. Yashpal who works as a mere school peon has a very progressive viewpoint when it comes to educating a girl or a boy – unlike his other relatives. Durga, on the other hand, is a very lively and a positive 12-year-old who is enjoying her childhood in and around the corners of Haryana. She loves running behind kites, climbing on the mango tree. Besides enjoying her childhood, Durga tried very hard to fulfill her father's dream. But somehow she just couldn't understand the calculations and hence always found herself confused between alphabets and numbers. Influenced by her coach, Rana sir, Yaspal allows Durga to be an athlete. Durga emerges as the winner in the national race but her competitor, Arti who secures the 2nd position gets drugs mixed in her food. In the blood test, Durga is found to be on drugs and is expelled from running for 5 years. As the consequence, her innocent family faces the villagers' ire and Durga is so shocked that she quits running forever.

Five years later

After 5 years Durga is now grown up and she has the responsibility to take care of her family as well as her dreams too. She meets Sanjay Prince (SP), her old childhood friend. But things between them are not too good. When Sp finds out that Durga has joined the same college as him, he threatens her to leave the college but eventually, they fall in love. Later Durga gets to know that SP's mom, Gayatri Devi, had mixed drugs to her food five years back and tells the media. Gayatri Devi gets angry and influences SP to make him Durga's enemy and SP and Arti start a new play. In the midst of this, SP and Durga marry each other. After being tortured by SP and his family, Durga finds out that Gayatri was a national athlete who was expelled from the academy and helps her to keep it a secret. Eventually, SP gets to know that Durga is innocent and his mom was the behind her pains. The family comes together and Durga begins training for her nationals. Arti's father blackmails Durga that he will destroy her family if she takes part in the national race. He kidnaps her family on the day of the race but SP and Durga rescue the family and Durga wins the race. Durga gets admitted in the academy for being qualified for international games. She succeeds in her attempts.

Cast

Main Cast

• Ananya Agarwal as Young Durga Choudhary: Yashpal's adopted daughter (2017)
• Srishti Jain as Durga Choudhary Ahlawat: Yashpal's adopted daughter, SP's wife (2017–2018)
• Paras Kalnawat as Adult Sanjay Prince Ahlawat aka SP: Gayatri and Neelkant's son, Durga's husband (2017–2018)
• Vicky Ahuja as Yashpal Choudhary: Durga's father (2017–2018)

Recurring cast

• Kate Sharma / Urfi Javed as Aarti: SP's childhood friend.
• Rajesh Shringarpure/Ankur Nayyar as Rana: Durga's coach. (2017)/(2017–2018)[4]
• Rashmi Shaw/Mrigrash Dubey as Annapurna Choudhary: Durga's mother, Yashpal's wife.
• Rajiv Khanna as Brijpal Choudhary: Durga's uncle, Yashpal's younger brother.
• Jyotika Kukrety as Sheela Brijpal Choudhary: Durga's aunt, Brijal's wife.
• Amardeep Jha as Santo
• Raj Sharnagat as Manohar
• Prince Singh as 2/2 Bhagwat
• Raquib Arshad as SRK
• Parineeta Borthakur/Dolly Sohi as Gayatri Devi Ahlawat aka Athlete Jassi: SP's mother (2017)/(2017–2018)[5]
• Rajiv Kumar as Neelkant Ahlawat: SP's father, Gayatri's husband.
• Paras Sharma as Gagan Ahlawat: SP's brother
• Jiya Chauhan as SP's Anjana Ahlawat: Gagan's wife
• Aishwarya Sharma / Sonal Parihar / Swapnil Sengar as Amrita: Durga's elder sister, Yashpal's daughter.
• Adhvik Mahajan as Madhav: Amrita's ex-lover, Umang's father.
• Advait as Umang: Durga's nephew, Amrita's son.
• Ashna Kishore as Shilpa: Durga's cousin, Brijpal's daughter.
• Ramansh Bundela Bantu Choudhary: Durga's cousin, Brijpal's son.
• Shanaya Shivi as Kuljeet, Durga's Friend
• Arishfa Khan as Aarti, Sanjay's Friend
• Yash Mistry as Young Sanjay Prince
• Soham Jadhav as Young Manohar
• Sanjay Kaushik as Rishi
• Apala Bisht As Laxmi
• Rakhi Vijan as Subhadra
• Nandani Master as Srijita
• Mohsin as Bhagwat
• Mohammad Saud as Bansi
• Satya Tiwari as Sam
• Ritu Bhagwani As Tanvi
• Urmila Sharma As Rohini
• Tariq Khan As Kadam
• Vishal C. Bhardwaj as Purshottam Singhania
• Dimple Jhangiani as senior district magistrate[6]
• Nia Sharma as Palasha Trivedi: Durga's friend (October 2017-January 2018)
• Rishina Kandhari as Durga's Teacher (Senorita)
• Apurva Agnihotri as Coach Bhagat

Production

Speaking about the series, producer Ravindra Gautham said, "Meri Durga is the introspection of a father's mind and heart. We very rarely see the father's side onscreen. And the show also supports girl education which I feel is the need of the hour."[2] Before its premiere, the series was promoted by the main cast in Ludhiana, Punjab on 16 January 2017.[7]

The series was mainly filmed at Powai.[8] However some scenes were also filmed at Haryana and Punjab.[9]

In June 2017, the storyline took a leap of five years.[10] Initially it starred Ananya Agarwal and Vicky Ahuja as young Durga and Yashpal.[11] After the leap, it starred Srishti Jain as adult Durga, Paras Kalnawat as SP opposite Jain along with Ahuja.[12][13]

Initially, Aalisha Panwar was cast to play adult Durga after the leap. But, on the last moment as she joined another show, Jain was cast.[14] Vishal Bharadwaj was supposed to play Madhav.[15] However as he was considered not suitable for the character in his first scene itself, Adhvik Mahajan was cast.[16]

References

1. "TV show Meri Durga's courageous father will remind you of Aamir Khan in Dangal". The Indian Express.
2. "Ravindra Gautam: Meri Durga is a tale of a father's mind and heart – Times of India". The Times of India.
3. "Meri Durga to go off air on March 17 – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
4. "Ankur Nayyar confident about replacing Rajesh Shringarpure in show". The Asian Age.
5. "Parineeta Replaced By Dolly Sohi in Meri Durga". News 18.
6. "Dimple Jhangiani back in action with 'Meri Durga'". The Times of India.
7. "Actors visit city to promote soap opera". Tribune India.
8. "'Meri Durga' first episode screened on its sets for cast and crew". The Times of India.
9. "A unique bond". The Hindu.
10. "OMG! 'Meri Durga' to take HUGE LEAP". ABP News.
11. "Meri Durga child actor Ananya Agarwal talks about her favourite person on sets". The Times of India.
12. "This 20 Year Old TV Actress Was Rejected Several Times for Being 'Too Fat'; Amazes Everyone by Losing 10 Kgs in One Month!". Daily Bhaskar.
13. "Model Paras Kalnawat to make his acting debut with Meri Durga". The Times of India.
14. "'Meri Durga' producer miffed with newbie Aalisha Panwar". The Times of India.
15. "Vishal enters Meri Durga". Tribune India.
16. "Adhvik Mahajan to make a comeback with Meri Durga". The Times of India.

External links

• Meri Durga Streaming on Hotstar