Girvi, conceptualised by Mahesh Bhatt was supposed to be a film starring Ajay Devgn and Pooja Bhatt, but that film never saw the light of day. It is now being converted into Udaan, a TV serial for Colors.
The show, co-written by Robin Bhatt and Javed Siddiqui (who have penned films like Baazigar and Koi Mil Gaya), explores the issue of bonded labour, still being practised in some villages. Says Robin, "It was in 1992 that Mahesh got the concept of doing a film on bonded labour. He had read somewhere about a child being mortgaged when it was in the womb of his mother. Javed and I scripted it. We shot some five-six reels of the film, before it was abandoned by the producer due to financial difficulties. Since then, Mahesh and I have always felt bad about such a fantastic subject being wasted."
Over a decade later, Gurudev Bhalla, who had once assisted Mahesh, approached Robin and asked if he could make it into a TV show. He asked Robin to script it as he is the original writer. With just one request. That he make it female-oriented. "In the film, a boy is mortgaged, but for the serial we changed it to a girl child. We developed the story and showed it to Mahesh, who liked it immensely," says Robin. Gurudev then approached the channel and immediately got a go-ahead.
Udaan will see Sai Deodhar-Anand making a comeback to TV after three years. She plays the mother and Rajiv Kumar her husband.
