When the flavour of 'Rural Olympics' hit TV screens in both Colors' Bani and Star Plus' Veera

Television rules the roost today, and popular GECs churn interesting one-of-its-kind concepts and tracks to bring in variety. Recently, the Rural Olympics which is the popular annual sports festival of Punjab was brought into focus in not one, but two of the prime time shows on Indian television. Tellychakkar.com elaborates. Colors’ recently launched show Bani – Ishq Da Kalma, produced by Mystic An Entertainment Company and Colosceum Media was the first to bring Rural Olympics on Indian Television. The initial episodes post their launch had this realistic setting wherein the entry of their male lead Sohum, played by Adhwik Mahajan was shot amidst the scenario of the Rural Olympics. A great scene to watch, which depicted the real culture of Punjab. The makers had even taken the pain of shooting at the real location of the Sports Festival in Punjab which took place in February this year. A little birdie from the sets of Bani did tell us that the unit shot at Kila Raipur Sports Festival in Ludhiana, Punjab early this year, wherein they had shot glimpses of the acrobats, bullet cart race, martial arts, hockey, horse acrobat so on and so forth, and incorporated Sohum’s entry into these scenes so that they have a realistic feel to the entire sequence. Job well done, team Bani!! However, this particular idea of showcasing the Rural Olympics was also seen in Yash Patnaik’s (Beyond Dreams) Ek Veer Ki Ardaas – Veera on Star Plus, yet another show whose concept bears root in Punjab. The only difference was that the unit of Veera recreated the ambience of Rural Olympics wherein the protagonist Ratan (Sneha Wagh) participated in a tractor race, horse race etc. So how was this unique idea accepted? Well, an insider from the industry tells us that though the makers of Bani were the first to come up with this novel idea, this piece of novelty in their show literally went unnoticed as the show was new and did not have a lot of takers in its initial episodes. However, Veera being the more popular show (which has won quite a lot of critical acclaim) managed to capture the appreciation of fans and viewers. After getting this bit of information, we decided to talk to both the Producers to know whether this was just a mere coincidence that both the shows harped upon the same idea to bring in freshness. Producer of Bani – Ishq Da Kalma, Damini Shetty told us, “Well, to tell you frankly, I am not even aware that Rural Olympics was aired on another show apart from Bani. I have been quite busy with my newly launched project that I get no time whatsoever to check out other shows on television.” Yash Patnaik, Producer of Veera went on to say, “Rural Olympics in Veera was not a spike, it was an important part of our story line. In Bani, they had shot just one sequence, but in Veera we had nine full episodes covering the sport in detail. And we had planned it well in advance.” He went on to say, “Rural Olympics is a very significant event in Punjab. We wanted to capture the canvas, euphoria, energy of the huge and unique event in Veera. But just capturing would have been ornamental. So we wanted to use it for story progression. And it was not possible to do it in the real event as you have restrictions of character and camera placements and execution. So we recreated the entire Rural Olympics for Veera.” All said and done, viewers did have freshness in terms of concept when it came to witnessing the ambience and thrill of the Rural Olympics!! While we congratulate the Veera team for reaping the results, our heart goes out to the team of Bani who could not capitalize on the theme despite of being the first to come up with it.