Sapna Babul Ka... Bidaai

Sapna Babul Ka... Bidaai is an Indian soap drama that aired from 8 October 2007 to 13 November 2010 on STAR Plus during weekdays.[1][2] It tells the story of a father and his two daughters and explores the social impacts of skin colour.[3] The series was replaced by Gulaal.[4]

Sapna Babul Ka... Bidaai
GenreDrama
Created byDirector Kut's Productions
Written byZama Habib
Garima Goyal
Virendra Shahaney
Aparna Shahaney
Anjali Bahura Misra
Bahnishikha Das
Reshma Khan
Sonali Jaffar
M P Anamika
Directed byRajan Shahi
Romesh Kalra
Sunand Baranwal
Neeraj Baliyan
Sharad Pandey
Mayank Gupta
Creative director(s)Shefali Lal
Madhura Rapsang
Richa Singh Gautam
Garima Dimri
Meet Kohli
RItu Goel
StarringSee below
Opening theme"Bidaai" by Manish Tripathi
Country of originIndia
Original language(s)Hindi
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes739
Production
Producer(s)Rajan Shahi
CinematographyArjun Rao
Bappi Mangal
Editor(s)Sameer Gandhi
Running time25 minutes
Production company(s)Director Kut's Productions
Release
Original networkStarPlus
Picture format576i (SDTV)
Original release8 October 2007 (2007-10-08) –
13 November 2010 (2010-11-13)

Plot summary

This story is about Ragini (Parul Chauhan) and Sadhana (Sara Khan), who are cousins. The first few episodes portray the death of Sadhana's mother due to her illness, and Sadhana's father being incapable of saving her due to him having an insufficient amount of money. Sadhana's father vows to travel to the United States of America to accumulate more money and endows the young Sadhana to her maternal uncle Prakash Chandra (Alok Nath). The show then takes a 17-year leap with Sadhana living in Agra and her father in California. Sadhana's father's only dream is to see her in the form of a bride. On the contrary, Sadhana longs to see her father. Living in the Sharma household, she manages to win both Ragini's and Prakash Chandra's hearts over, however Ragini's mother, Kaushalya (Vibha Chibber) is hesitant due to the difference of skin complexion between the two. One day, the news comes that Sadhana's father is returning from California and will take Sadhana back to Udaipur. Everyone rejoices. However, a turn of fate destroys all hope. Unfortunately, due to the violent weather, Sadhana's father's plane crashes and he dies. Sadhana is heartbroken to hear the news. She eventually ends up staying at the Sharma house.

Struggles for finding a suitable match for Ragini are on, owing to her dark complexion, and she ends up getting rejected in favour of the lighter-complexioned Sadhana. However, one proposal is finalized, and Kaushalya and Nanima decide to hide Sadhana. However, due to unforeseeable circumstances, Sadhana reaches the wedding venue of Ragini, and the boy's family reject Ragini in favour of Sadhana once again, which causes Kaushalya to attempt suicide, but Prakashchand saves her. Things return to normal, and Sadhana gets a new job.

Sadhana starts working at the Rajvansh house as a tutor. Ranveer (Kinshuk Mahajan) is one of the sons of the house who went to the United States of America to study abroad and eventually comes back. He has a brother Alekh (Angad Hasija) who is mentally unstable. Alekh's mother, Vasundhara (Seema Kapoor) thinks that marriage can help Alekh to get better. The Sharmas suffer from major financial problems and are threatened to lose their house. Vasundhara offers Sadhana money to save their home in exchange for Sadhana and Alekh's marriage, but Sadhana also puts forth the additional demand of getting Ranveer married to Ragini, because she witnesses Ranveer protecting Ragini's honour from a few hooligans after they tease her dark complexion and comes to the conclusion that he would make a good life partner for Ragini, and she for him. Vasundhara tricks Sadhana by accepting her demand, but it is only a facade. She sends off Ranveer to the U.S., while Sadhana marries Alekh, but promises to get them married once he returns. Sadhana marries Alekh, but the marriage of Ragini with Ranveer does not happen as Ranvir falls in love with Sonia while in the U.S., and brings her along with him to India. However, it is later revealed that Sonia is a gold-digger who only attached herself to Ranveer for his money. After this revelation, Ranveer is heartbroken and begins to sink into depression. However, as a twist of fate, it is Ragini who ends up saving him from this fate when she dials his number by mistake, and in beautiful words, advises him to move on in life. Ranveer is massively enthralled by her words, and slowly, Ranveer and Ragini begin talking on the phone regularly, unaware of the other's identity. They refer to themselves as Anmol and Anamika. Sadhana eventually figures this out, but does not reveal it to them and leaves the fate of their friendship to God. She, however, lets Alekh in on this secret.

Ranveer and Ragini begin to fall in love, and decide to meet each other. However, when they meet, both are shocked, and due to the interference of Vasundhara (who doesn't want to accept Ragini as her daughter-in-law due to her dark complexion), Ranveer thinks that Ragini knew about his identity all along, but chose to play with his feelings in order to marry into a rich family. Ragini, meanwhile, is shocked to learn that Ranveer is Anmol, and is heartbroken when he seemingly rejects her. Ranveer and Ragini, both get to know that Sadhana knew about their real identities all along and blame her for hiding it from them. However, misunderstandings eventually get cleared up after Ranveer realises that he truly loves Ragini when he learns that very much like him, she too had no idea of his real identity and had truly loved him all along. He decides that his life is not complete without her and fights tooth and nail to win her love after leaving her heartbroken. Slowly but surely, their love wins over their families, especially their opposing mothers, and they eventually marry. After their marriage, they decide to help Sadhana in order to cure Alekh so that she can experience a fulfilling marital life as well. Ranveer started investigating what happened with him that diwali night so he Ragini and Sadhana plan to recreate that diwali night once again as Alekh see that moment again he remembers that Ambika killed his grandfather and he was told by Ambika to Alekh that his grandfather was killed by Vasundhara . Alekh feels very humiliated and apolojizes to Vasundhra . The next day Ambika and Sathyen left the Rajvansh house and Ambika cursed that history will repeat itself and this time it will be Ragini and Sadhna . This all eventually clears up and Alekh satarts living a normal life . They are successful in their quest. Misunderstandings develop between Sadhana and Alekh after his recovery, however, they also get cleared up eventually, and they all live happily together for a while. Ragini and Sadhana soon become pregnant and the whole family are overjoyed. However, nine months later, tragedy strikes as Sadhana dies in a fire, whilst saving Ragini but her unborn baby is saved. The whole family are devastated of Sadhana’s death. Ragini thus decides to raise Sadhana’s daughter up too along with hers.

The show then takes a seven-year leap where Ragini is shown bringing her daughter Tamanna up along with Khushi who is Sadhana's daughter. Ragini and the family commemorate the seventh anniversary of Sadhana's death. It is revealed that Ranveer died, too, in a rock avalanche while saving his friend Anmol (Apurva Agnihotri)'s life. Anmol promised Ranvir to look after his family and as a result, he lives in the Rajvansh household as Tamanna's father. After Sadhana and Ranveer's deaths, Alekh has lost his mental balance once again but eventually recovers thanks to the care of a girl named Sakshi (Sulagna Panigrahi) who comes close to him. The show ends with a two-hour special episode in which Ragini remarries to Anmol and Alekh to Sakshi. Guests come to congratulate them and dance. Both couples take deceased Sadhana and Ranveer's blessings and perform the Bidaai (farewell) ritual.

Cast

Main cast
  • Parul Chauhan as Ragini Ranvir Rajvansh (2007-2010)
  • Sara Khan as Sadhana Alekh Rajvansh[5] (2007-2010)
  • Angad Hasija as Alekh Inderjit Rajvansh, Sadhana’s ex-husband: Sakshi’s husband and Khushi’s father (2008-2010)
  • Kinshuk Mahajan as Ranveer Inderjit Rajvansh, Ragini's first husband, Alekh’s brother and Tamanna’s father (2008-2010)
  • Sulagna Panigrahi as Sakshi Alekh Rajvansh, Alekh's second wife (2010)
  • Apurva Agnihotri as Anmol Sareen, Ragini's second husband (2010)[6]

Recurring cast
  • Nirali Desai as Tamanna Ranvir Rajvansh (Ragini and Ranveer’s daughter) (2010)
  • Divya Naaz as Khushi Alekh Rajvansh (Sadhna and Alekh's daughter) (2010)
  • Alok Nath as Prakash Chandra Sharma, Sadhna's uncle, Ragini's father (2007-2010)
  • Vibha Chibber as Kaushalya Prakash Chandra Sharma, Sadhna's aunt, Ragini's mother (2007-2010)
  • Ashita Dhawan as Malti Vineet Sharma, Ragini's sister-in-law, Vineet's wife (2007-2010) Seslendirme: Burcu Güneştutar
  • Naveen Saini as Vineet Prakash Chandra Sharma, Sadhna's cousin brother, Ragini's brother (2007-2010)
  • Siddharth Kumar as Kavya Vineet Sharma, Malti and Vineet's son (2010)
  • Amardeep Jha as Sumitra Naani (2007-2010)
  • Mahesh Thakur as Kishanchand Awasthy, Sadhna's father (2007)
  • Seema Kapoor as Vasundhara Inderjit Rajvansh, Ranveer and Alekh's mother (2008-2010) Seslendirme: Birtanem Candaner
  • Avinash Wadhawan as Inderjit Rajvansh, Ranveer and Alekh's father (2008-2010) Seslendirme: Bora Seçkin
  • Natasha Rana as Ambika Satyen Rajvansh, Satyen's wife (2008-2009)
  • Aliraza Namdar as Satyen Rajvansh (2008-2009)
  • Vimarsh Roshan as Naveen Satyen Rajvansh (2008-2010)
  • Preeti Puri as Avni Naveen Rajvansh (2008-2010)
  • Rahul Lohani as Karan Inderjit Rajvansh (2010)
  • Shafaq Naaz as Guni Rajvansh (2008-2010)
  • Shabana Mullani as Dolly Rajvansh (2008-2010)
  • Prerna Wanvari as Shivani (2010)
  • Puneet Tejwani as Dr. Shlok (2009)
  • Aruna Singhal as Shakuntala (2009)
  • Manish Raisinghan as Saket (2007)
  • Madhura Naik as Sonia Singh/ Sonia Chopra (2008)
  • Eva Grover as Sheetal (2008)
  • Amar Upadhyay as Advocate Dhananjay Singhania (2009)
  • Utkarsha Naik as Sulakshana (2007)
  • Kamalika Guha Thakurta as Vidyashree Shasthry (2010)
  • Shambhavi Sharma as Gujri (2007-2010)
  • Kartik Sabarwal as Shailendra (2007)
  • Rajshri Thakur as Nishtha Vasudev (2009)
  • Pragati Mehra as Sadhna's aunt, Kamlesh's wife (2007)
  • Rajendra Chawla as Kamlesh Awasthy, Sadhna's uncle, Kishanchand's brother (2007)
  • Sadiya Siddiqui as Ragini's dance teacher (2007)
  • Smriti Sinha as Maillika Mehra (2010)
  • Amit Singh Thakur as Mr. Mehra (2010)
  • Seerat Alam as Isha (2010)
  • Puneet Sachdev as Tarun (2010)

Guests

Production

Bidaai is the first offering of Producer Rajan Shahi under Director's Kut Production.[7] The initial phase of the series is inspired from the Bollywood film Vivah of Rajshri Productions.[8][9]

The series is based on the backdrop of Agra.[10] The series was mainly filmed in Mumbai at the sets in Mira road.[11] Besides, some scenes were filmed in and on the outskirts of Agra including Taj Mahal.[12][13]

Speaking about his role, male lead Angad Hasija said, "My character Alekh was a Schizophrenic. Initially, I had a problem, but I really worked hard to build the character,"[14] Initially, Hasija was rejected for the role by Producer Rajan Shahi considering his long hair and physique appearance not suitable. After working on those, Shahi accepted him for the role of Alekh.[15]

In October 2007, shooting of the series was stalled for a while when the Labour Union protested for hiring men for erecting the sets from outside rather than the members from the Film Studio Setting and Allied Mazdoor Union as per the rules.[16]

In October 2008, a special sequence of celebrating Taj Mahotsav was shot in Agra where Hema Malini was roped for a guest appearance as the chief guest of the event.[17] Besides, Shweta Tiwari and Anjali Abrol appeared as the performers of that event and Vivan Bhatena also made a special appearance for the event.[18]

In November 2008, the shootings and telecast of all the Hindi television series including this series and films were stalled on 8 November 2008 due to dispute by the technician workers of FWICE (Federation of Western India Cine Employees) for increasing the wages, better work conditions and more breaks between shootings.[19] FWICE first took a strike on 1 October 2008 when they addressed their problems with the producers and production was stalled.[20] A contract was signed after four days discussions and shooting were happening only for two hours content in a day then after which differences increased between them while channels gave them time until 30 October 2008 to sort it out.[21] Failing to do so lead to protests again from 10 November 2008 to 19 November 2008 during which channels blacked out new broadcasts and repeat telecasts were shown from 10 November 2008.[21][22] On 19 November 2008, the strike was called off after settling the disputes and the production resumed.[23] The new episodes started to telecast from 1 December 2008.[24] Shahi reported about ₹7 Lakh losses due to the stalling of production and telecast.[25]

In December 2009, the shoot of the series was stalled for three hours due to the morcha by some group of women when the lead sisters Sadhna and Ragini were shown developing differences between them in their marital home in the series which they condemned. However, they were pacified by Producer Rajan Shahi, Sara Khan and Parul Chauhan playing Sadhna and Ragini and the shootings resumed.[26]

In January 2009, Eva Grover was cast as Sheetal for a small cameo.[27] Good response her role made it to be extended.[28] In February 2009, the honeymoon track of the characters Sadhna and Alekh, Ragini and Ranbir was filmed in Kerala where Payal Nair and Anupam Bhattacharya were cast as Gayathri and Madhavan for a cameo.[29] Initially they were supposed to go to Switzerland for the honeymoon sequence which could not as Sara Khan playing Sadhna did not have passport and time to arrange for it which was required soon and Kerala was finalized for it.[30] A sequence during the last day shoot in a beach in Kerala was stalled in between due to dispute between the production unit and the local fishermen there and thus being cut during telecast.[31]

In February 2010, film actress Hansika Motwani was seen in a cameo as the chief guest of the dance competition event Natraj Mahotsav in the series.[32] Besides Mouli Ganguly played the cameo of host, Sangita Ghosh and Sanjeeda Sheikh being the performers in the event.[33] In June 2010, to increase the ratings, one of the main characters was killed, causing Sara Khan to exit the series.[5] Soon, when a generation leap followed, one of the male leads Kinshuk Mahajan quit where his character was also killed and Apurva Agnihotri was cast as the new male lead opposite Parul Chauhan.[34] Following it, in August 2010 Sulagna Panigrahi was cast as Sakshi opposite Hasija.[35]

Crossover

In 2009, they had a crossover episode with Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. Gulaal which replaced the series in its slot had a crossover with it during the end of Bidaai.[36]

Cancellation

The end of the series was first planned six months before it went off air when the ratings were declining. Otherwise, shifting it to an afternoon slot was not considered as they thought it might degrade its popularity.[37] The channel prompted the producer to introduce twists like the death of the character Sadhna and a time leap after which the ratings rose.[38] However, the series went off air on 13 November 2010, despite delivering a good rating, maintaining its position in the top ten shows as the team decided not to stretch the series. Speaking about the reason for ending, executive director of Star channel Vivek Bahl stated: "The show has run its course, and both, the channel and the producer, didn't feel the need to stretch the story. We didn't want to end the show once the number started falling. Bidaai has been a top show, and deserves to go like a top show,"[38] Producer Rajan Shahi stated that they wanted the series to end on a high note.[38]

After its end, there were also many reports for the second season being in progress.[39][40] However Shahi denied it.[41]

Reception

Critics

On Bidaai's success, The telegraph stated, "Bidaai didn’t turn out to be too hatke (out of the box), but the identifiable characters and slice-of-life situations struck a chord."[42]

Praising the two shows Bidaii and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai of Rajan Shahi's Director's Kut Production as game changers of Starplus which do not have excessive camera moves and mother in law - daughter in law melodramas unlike previously aired dramas, The Times of India stated, "The shows adequately highlighted the quintessential emotions with loads of romanticism and simplicity in story-telling."[43]

Ratings

Bidaai started off with 4.7 TVR during its premiere in October 2007 featuring in top 10 shows.[44] Soon, in December 2007, it rose 5.4 TVR.[45]

It also became the first Hindi GEC to beat Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to the top position at that time garnering 5.28 TVR during first week January 2008.[10] Until March 2008, it shuffled in and out of top ten shows.[46] In March 2008, it got 6 TVR on one of the leads Sadhana and Alekh's wedding track. Since April 2008 to September 2008, it was consistently the number one series except twice in June 2008, when it was pushed to second by Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Star Parivaar Awards.[46] In the week during 5 October to 11 October 2008, it was second most watched after Balika Vadhu with 6 TVR.[47] Its highest rating garnered in the year was 8.8 TVR for the Taj Mahotsav sequence in October 2008.[48] In November 2008 overall, it was the second most watched hindi show with averaging between 5 and 6 TVR.[49]

In January 2009, it recorded its highest rating of 9.6 TVR during lead characters Ragini and Ranveer's marriage.[38] In week 9 of 2009, it occupied second position with 6.3 TVR.[50] When the nine year dominant number one position of StarPlus channel was beaten by Colors TV channel in week ending 11 April 2009, Bidaai and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai were the top watched Hindi shows with 7.4 and 7 TVR.[51] Overall in the year, it was the third most watched with 9.5 TVR.[52]

As in February 2010, it maintained its top position with 5 to 6 TVR.[53] In early March, it occupied second position after Yeh Rishta with 6.8 TVR.[54] Until June 2010, it ranged between 5 and 7 TVR. However, when the series took a leap in June 2010, ratings dipped and it went out of top 5 watched Hindi programs to 10th position.[55] Between June and July it ranged between 2 and 5 TVR.[45] From October to November 2010 it ranged 2 to 3 TVR while the last episode of two hours duration aired on 13 November 2010 garnered 6.06 TVR, becoming the second most watched Hindi GEC in that week.[45][56]

Impact

Writer Shoma Munshi in their book Prime time soap operas on Indian Television had included the series among her five specific serials chosen for analysis stating, "I chose ‘Saat Phere… Saloni Ka Safar’ and ‘Sapna Babul Ka… Bidaai’ as a counterfoil, because they were the first to challenge the K soaps’ supremacy, and both were issue-based, focusing on the dark skin/fair skin thesis."[57]

On January 2008, creative head of Zee TV and the writer of Saat Phere: Saloni Ka Safar accused Bidaai as a copy of Saat Phere, where both of them deals with the story of a dark complexion girl with different story lines for which Producer Rajan Shahi stated, "Why is the comparison being made after four months of Bidaai’s launch? Is it because our show is doing better?".[58]

A dialogue from a episode, aired on 6 October 2009, said by Angad Hasija on Valmiki offended the Valmiki community and the series telecast had a black out in Punjab for 2 months.[59][60] When Punjab police came to arrest the actor and Producer Rajan Shahi after a FIR was filed on them, but they got interim bail.[61] In September 2009, Information and broadcasting ministry sent a notice to Star regarding it. When Star and Producer approached Punjab and Haryana High Court to quash the FIR stating that they did not intend to hurt the feelings of Valmiki Community and the FIR was due to the out of context misinterpretation of that dialogue.[62][63] However, court dismissed their queries and stated them to face the trial. When it was taken over to Supreme court, they also dismissed stating the same.[64] Later, on arguments in the court, the FIR was finally quashed and the petition was dismissed.[65]

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