Arjun: 50 episodes

As Arjun completes 50 episodes today, I wanted to thank all the people who have been watching this show. This show has been a roller coaster ride ever since it started and being on a roller coaster for a long time is never easy.  Hats off and a heartfelt thanks to everyone involved with the show who have relentlessly given it their best  - day after day. I also want to thank all the people who have been watching the show regularly and letting us know their feedback about the show through various polls and critiques especially the small but passionate community of Arjun watchers on Forum 32. Please keep the praises and brickbats coming!!!

The picture above is a glimpse of what you will be watching tonight. We are working very hard to bring you even better episode of Arjun and starting from tonight's episode there are going to be quite a few surprises. Stay tuned, keep watching and keep interacting.

ARJUN: The mystery of the lost episode

Something went horribly wrong today. We missed the second and third segment of telecast due to technical reasons.

I want to say sorry to all the people who waited for a week to watch the show but did not get to watch it.

I have spent the past couple of hours on the phone trying to figure out what went wrong and where. I have also been been apologising to the people in the team because all their  sleepless nights, working inspite of being sick and ill and all their hard work did not see the light of day.

The video below, though does not make up for the lost episode but what it shows is the spirit that is behind TEAM ARJUN. This is what makes us - and today, I want all of you to be a part of it. So switch off the lights and turn up the volume!

GEET: A journey through pictures

My association with Geet is a strange one. My company 4 Lions Films produced the show but I have never been on the sets of Geet barring a few occasions. The start of the show was one and then there was the Qurban Hua dance sequence. It is a good thing that I always, my camera with me - one of them, at least. At that point of time I didn't realise the value of what I was shooting because I was busy with my own work. But slowly, over time I realised that Geet was a show that had touched and changed lives. People had become friends (and enemies!), people had given up their jobs and mustered the courage to follow their dreams, people had fallen in love and yes, some even got married - all because of Geet. Some of these people continue to be good friends with us till today and some of them even work with us. Geet definitely changed lives.

I had compiled this video(glorified slideshow,actually) in a hurry the day Geet shut down. It is a shoddy job - I just threw my pictures folder into iMovie and slapped a song -  the computer did the rest. I tweaked it just a little. I knew if I spent too long on it, I would never complete it.

I shared this video with a select audience, mostly people who follow me on Google Plus. I did not put it on You Tube because I knew it would be a copyright violation but all that changed today.

I got a mail from You Tube saying  - "Your video "Geet - A journey in pictures", may have content that is owned or licensed by SME, but it’s still available on YouTube! In some cases, ads may appear next to it. This claim is not penalising your account status." Not penalising? Here we go then. Switch off the lights and turn up the volume!

Here is to Geet, the show that touched and changed so many lives - including mine.

Visitors on my set

Whenever I get a brief moment to pause and look around while shooting, I usually see a lot of visitors and bystanders who have gathered around to watch the shoot happening.

It is fascinating to see the reactions of these bystanders. And sometimes, they take you by surprise - like this lady in the picture above. I thought, at her age people would give a damn about shooting and television and would soon move on. I was not carrying my camera around my neck that day and did not even to call for it for the same reason. Half an hour later, I looked up and she was still there in exactly the same position. I promptly called for my camera from the car and shot this.

Note to self: Must do a series based on the theme.