Shweta Tiwari News

Seeking divine intervention: The Kasautii team

Is Kasautii Zindagii Kay being yanked off air? The buzz in the telly circles is that the show, which has become extremely lacklustre of late, is on its last leg.

Anurag Basu (Cezanne Khan) and his family have been missing from the Balaji daily for quite a while. It is learnt that Cezanne has been missing in action as he has been shooting in Dubai for a show with ARY channel.

Several character actors have either walked out of the show in the past few months as they have nothing to do, and those who have steadfastly stuck on, are waiting for a call to resume shooting. Along with Kyunki and Kahaani, Kasautii has been Balaji’s driving force on Star Plus since the last five years. Despite a loyal viewership, the drama at present lacks that Balaji punch.

Time off

When asked producer Ekta Kapoor, however, maintains, “Kasautii is not shutting down. It is doing well.”

But the truth is far from it. It is learnt that the lead cast of Shweta Tiwari, Ronit Roy and Cezanne have been intermittently away for certain periods of time in the past few months — the reason why there were changes in the story track. Shweta was busy with Nach Baliye 2 and then she had an eye operation. Then Ronit was away in the US for some time and Cezanne took time off, too.

So obviously the drama had to start focusing on the others. Moreover, the sobering down of the menacing Prem (Manoj Bohra) proved to be a disappointment to viewers.

Says an onlooker, “The buzz that Kasautii is going off air has been doing the rounds for a while now, but there’s been no final decision yet. The show has been on for five years and it looks like it has reached saturation point. It is now focusing on Mr Bajaj’s brother. There are talks in progress and some key members of the cast have been asked how they would like to take the show forward at this juncture.”

Though there is nothing official about it, at the moment Kasautii’s dying plot has been noticed and that it needs a shot in the arm. Incidentally, in the same time slot there is Dulhann on Zee, Solhah Singaar on Sahara One while Sony is set to air its new drama, Kulvaddhu, from Christmas day.