Television
No pit stops for champ cars

Telly viewers are no longer satisfied with cricket and more cricket, especially since the Indian team is on the skid these days. Sports channels are now looking for alternative shows to pull back the viewership.

Keeping this in mind, Zee Sports has introduced a new show on weekends, Champ Car. One of the most demanding sport in the world, Champ Car racing features exotic, high-speed, open-wheel cars burning rubber around the world. These vehicles are deemed the most sophisticated apart from space shuttles and jet fighters.

The sports channel is not simply concentrating on the races but also probes the scientific side of the sport including the make of the cars with their incredible engines and advanced aerodynamics. So don’t miss the action this July with one of the most technologically advanced sports in the world that guarantees a drive of a lifetime.

The bigger picture

She’s finally in the field of her dreams. Though she’s hosting Mussafir Hoon Yaaron and doing a cameo in Star One’s Siddhanth her mind is clearly on films.

Recipient of the Smita Patil and Nargis Dutt awards for Shaheed-e-Mohabbat, Divya Dutta’s stock has soared after her excellent performances in films like Baghban, Agnipankh and more recently Veer Zara where she plays Priety Zinta’s maid-in-waiting.

"I am trying to balance films and TV," says Divya who is doing a host of crossover films like Dubai Return, Birth of Death, Devi- The Bride in Red, Chikan Tikka Masala and Ram Gopal Varma’s Mr Ya Miss.

Divya, who made her small screen debut a decade ago with Rangarang on the national network, is so busy with her big screen commitments that she is not taking on the TV projects being offered to her by the dozen.

But Divya’s quick to respond, " Films are great fun but television is also very satisfying. For the time being, I’ll be doing both. But if it comes to the crunch then my choice is clear — it’ll be films." She sure has the big picture in mind.

Desperate Housewives: Life after ‘happily ever after’

It’s a take on the happily ever after syndrome. Desperate Housewives, premiering July 15 on Star World, is a dark comedy that takes a peek at the unhappy lives of wealthy American women.

When American housewife Mary Alice ends her life, she makes all her peers wonder what went wrong with her seemingly happy married life. Now from her vantage viewpoint in heaven (or hell!) she uncovers the real secrets behind the closed doors of her neighbours.

The concept is great and the show is slick but for the initiated the show may seem like an upmarket, trendy rerun of Sex and The City.

Getting the creeps

It was a rattling experience she’s not likely to forget in a long time. When Deepa Parab was told she had to shoot for a sequence with a live cobra in Reth she was nonchalant, saying that a real snake would give the scene an authentic touch.

But when the snake was brought to the sets and placed in front of her she recoiled back in horror. And when it started slithering towards her she panicked and forgot her expressions and dialogues.

"I think even the snake got scared with so much commotion around him. I kept staring at it in fear it might attack me. The whole incident was very dumb and scary," reminisces Deepa.

The director realised that the shot was not happening and decided to shoot individually and then mix the scenes up on the editing table. Though she gave their best performance, but her tryst with the king cobra was no royal experience. — NF

The countdown to destruction has finally ended with the premier of Time Bomb on Zee TV. The show is a part of the channel’s latest efforts to move away from the mundane and cater to a wider audience base with diverse and intelligent programming. And Zee TV has not spared any expense to fight its way back to the number one slot.

Directed by Ketan Mehta, with performances by sought after TV stars like Kay Kay Menon, Rajeev Khandelwal and Akashdeep Sehgal, Time Bomb is an international story of intrigue and global terror with its epicentre in South Asia.

The storyline that unfolds in one day is about an assassination attempt on the Indian Prime Minister with RAW agents trying to race against time to unfurl the ever-thickening plot.

Though the script is taut and the performances slick, one still hopes that the new show clicks and lifts Zee from its morass of mediocrity. Otherwise, the bomb might just blow up in the channel’s face.

Have you smiled at adversities and have the courage to take on life? Have you been brought up in luxuries and have made a choice to give it all up for love? Then you could be the Rani that Sahara One is looking out for.

Sahara One Television is in search of that real-life Rani who has gone through life’s roller-coaster and has got transformed from a delicate loving daughter to a woman of strength after getting married into a simple household.

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