Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee

Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee is an Indian Hindi television drama, produced by Shoonya Square Productions.^[1] The series starred Tina Ann Philip and Kanwar Dhillon.^[2] It premiered on 3 April 2017 on Star Plus and aired from Monday through Saturday during the Star Plus Dopahar (afternoon) programming block.^[3] The series ended on 30 September 2017 with the discontinuation of the Star Plus Dopahar block.^[4]

Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee
Genre	Indian soap opera
Created by	Shoonya Square Productions
Directed by	Dharmendra Sharma
Starring	Tina Ann Philip Kanwar Dhillon
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of episodes	156
Production
Producers	Dheeraj Sarna Ved Raj Shrivastav
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	23 minutes
Release
Original network	STAR Plus
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Original release	3 April (2017-04-03) – 30 September 2017 (2017-09-30)

Plot

The series revolves around Aastha, an atheist girl from Manali, who gets married into a very religious family in Kolkata and tries to save the family from Guru Maa's ploys. Aastha's and Shiv's love is meant to be. Radhika, Shiv's ex-girlfriend comes and destroys their love by creating misunderstandings between them. Shiv wants Aastha to stop his marriage with Radhika. But Aastha thinks that if Shiv loves her he will not marry Radhika. Shiv and Aastha love each other a lot but are unable to tell each other. Radhika and Gurumas plan fails when Astha exposes Radhika through the use of a recorder. During their engagement, Astha uses technology to show how Radhika conspired against the whole family to obtain her interest. After Radhika is exposed, gurumaa says that she wants to do 'aarti' before she leaves the household to which the members retaliate. But, on Asthas convincing, the family members agree. Gurumaa gives prashad which contains sleeping pills. In the parallel scene, Radhika comes in Asthas room and holds her up against the wall with a knife. Arguments continue between Lakshmi, Gurumaa and others. Eventually, Shiv rescues Astha under the pretext of marrying Radhika. The show ends on a happy note that a person's character cannot be judged based on their religious views. An atheist person can be a good human and a religious person can be a bad human.

Cast

Main cast

• Tina Ann Philip as Aastha Shiv Agarwal: Shiv's wife.
• Kanwar Dhillon as
  • Shiv Govind Agarwal: Aastha's husband.
  • Om Govind Agarwal: Shiv's twin brother.
• Sharanpreet Kaur as Guru Maa, known also as Sandhya
• Palak Pusarwani as Radhika, Guru Maa's daughter and Shiv's ex-girlfriend

Recurring cast

• Vivek Mushran as Govind Agarwal, Shiv's father
• Manasi Salvi as Lakshmi Govind Agarwal, Shiv's mother and Govind's wife
• Hemant Choudhary as Nandlal Agarwal, Shiv's uncle and Govind's younger brother
• Manisha Dave as Jaya Nandalal Agarwal, Shiv's aunt and Nandalal's wife
• Mayank Sharma as Angad Nandalal Agarwal, Nandalal and Jaya's son
• Sameeksha Sud as Janki Angad Agarwal, Angad's wife
• Anita Kulkarni as Sharda, Aastha's mother
• Nikhil Sharma as Ashok, Aastha's brother
• Vaani Sharma as Gayatri Govind Agarwal
• Abhinav Kapoor as Balwan Agarwal, Shiv's brother. Balwan is the adopted son of the Agarwal family.
• Ambika Soni as Runjhun Balwan Agarwal, Balwan's wife and Aastha's sister
• Rashi Khanna as Aastha
• Tottempudi Gopichand

• Ahmad Harhash as Billo Rani

Production

Development

Initially titled as Nastik while in pre-production, the title Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee was finalized then.^[5][6]

This was one of the four dramas which was launched on 3 April 2017 during afternoon band of Star Plus Dopahar Block, reviving Star Plus' afternoon new programming after years.^[7]

In May 2017, while the leads Tina Philip and Kanwar Dhillon were shooting for a sequence in a lake of Film City, Philip drowned while Dhillon saved her.^[8]

A fire broke out on 9 August 2017 which destroyed some parts of the sets while none got hurt.^[9] The series is going to be featured in Starlife as Prayers of love

Casting

Tina Philip and Kanwar Dhillon were cast as the leads.^[10] Besides Sharanpreet Kaur, Manasi Salvi, Pallavi Rao, Anita Kulkarni, Palak Purswani, Lilly Patel, Supriya Sarna, Vivek Mushran, Abhinav Kapoor, Hemant Choudhary, Manisha Dave, Mayank Sharma, Samiksha Sud, Nikhil Sharma, Vaani Sharma and Ambika Soni were cast then.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

Filming

Although set in Kolkata, the series is filmed at the sets created in Mumbai at Film City, Goregaon.^[18] Some earlier episodes were shot in Kolkata and Manali.^[19][20]

Cancellation

With the serials in the afternoon block not being able to garner the expected numbers in its ratings, the channel shut the show on September 30, 2017.^[4]

References

1. "Star Plus channel's Diya Aur Baati Hum 2 and other new afternoon series to be as good as prime time shows". International Business Times. 15 February 2017. from the original on 16 April 2017.
2. "Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee: End of romance for Aastha-Shiv, her 'naastik' truth to shock family". The Indian Express. from the original on 19 July 2017.
3. "'Ek Aastha Aise Bhee' lead actor Tina to be selective after debut". New Kerala. from the original on 25 March 2017.
4. "Star Dopahar to call it a day, all shows to end on September 30". Indian Express. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
5. "Star Plus to launch 'Nastik' in February". Biz Asia. 27 December 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
6. "On The Sets of TV Show Ek Aastha Aisi Bhi". NDTV. from the original on 17 September 2017.
7. Laghate, Gaurav. "Star Plus to reboot afternoon slot with 4 new shows". The Economic Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
8. "SHOCKING! Kanwar Dhillon and Tina Phillip had a 'near death experience'". ABP News. 2 May 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
9. "Fire partially destroys the set of Ek Aastha Aisi Bhi". The Times of India. from the original on 10 August 2017.
10. "Abhinav, Kanwar 'bond' like brothers". Business Standard. from the original on 4 May 2017.
11. "Sharanpreet Kaur to play Guru Maa on a TV show". The Times of India. from the original on 4 March 2017.
12. "Manasi Salvi makes for the hottest mom-in-law of TV". The Times of India. 2 August 2017. from the original on 14 August 2019.
13. "Star Plus Launches a New Show in its Afternoon Slot! Know More". Daily Bhaskar. from the original on 21 September 2019.
14. "Why Vivek Mushran shoots barefoot for Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee". Hindustan Times. 23 March 2017. from the original on 23 March 2017.
15. "Abhinav Kapoor to play a happy character in Ek Aastha Aisi Bhi". The Indian Express. 20 February 2017. from the original on 26 February 2017.
16. "From reel to real life: On-screen brother-sister duo Tina Philip and Nikhil Sharma from Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee are dating each other". The Times of India. from the original on 28 April 2019.
17. "Vaani S Sharma of 'Ek Aastha Aisee Bhi' is a foodie to the core". The Times of India. from the original on 3 February 2019.
18. "Mumbai's Film City shut down after five leopard attacks". Hindustan Times. August 2017. from the original on 1 August 2017.
19. "I speak better Hindi than Mumbaikers". Rediff.com. from the original on 11 April 2017.
20. "'Ek Aastha Aisi Bhee' actors in city to promote show on Star Plus". Daily Pioneer.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)