Original episodes of 'Rajani' lost forever: Karan Razdan on Doordarshan show, its '2.0' version

Mumbai: Actor-director Karan Razdan, who is back with a new version of the popular 1985 show ‘Rajani’, said the episodes of the original serial, starring his former wife Priya Tendulkar, are lost.

The serial, which Razdan wrote and Basu Chatterjee directed, featured the late star Tendulkar as a middle-class housewife who takes on issues related to the common public. It was quite popular at the time and even featured cameos from Shah Rukh Khan and Subhash Ghai.

The new version, currently streaming on ‘Doordarshan’, features Aradhana Sharma as Rajani’s daughter, who is carrying forward her mother’s legacy by tackling different issues in each of the serial’s episodes.

The filmmaker, also known for the popular serial ‘Tehkikaat’ and writing screenplays for movies such as ‘Diljale’ and ‘Trimurti’, is happy that they got a chance to recreate the series and on Waves OTT.

“The original episodes have been lost forever because those days preserving the tape and that also a low-band tape was, I think, next to impossible. Here at least we have recreated ‘Rajini’ and on ‘Waves OTT’; it’s going to last a lifetime or for long,” he told PTI.

Razdan said it was a conscious decision not to bring a replacement to the character played by Tendulkar and instead feature the new protagonist as her daughter.

“If I had replaced Priya with Rajani, then it would be a completely idiotic thought. But here it’s the daughter. So, I feel that this was a chance worth taking.”

According to Razdan, the series at the time couldn’t continue as they were tackling issues that were not comfortable for those in power, but it was revived briefly for a second season in 1995. “So, I have lived with the idea (of bringing a new show) for about eight years till Gaurav Dwivedi ji (CEO of ‘Prasar Bharti’) contacted me. We came up with the idea to make ‘Rajani 2.0’ and launch it on ‘Waves’.”