It's official. Star Plus' afternoon soap <em>Bhabhi</em> will take a 20 year leap, and producers UTV have brought in a new band of freshers to help keep the serial afloat. The serial will go into fast forward mode on 2 June, with the introduction of Puneet Sachdev and Mohit Raina who will play the male leads - Vishv and Shubham.

Leaps in soaps have become as common as salt and pepper, so why should <em>Bhabhi</em> lag behind? Seems, Star Plus thinks just that! End of this month, Bhabhi is slated for a 16-year fast forward.

A new character, Krish is entering the <em>Bhabhi</em> plot shortly. Saroj, the ever suffering Bhabhi, will soon get to play a slightly different role - one with romantic overtones. Krish will be played by Kartik Sabharwal, a model who's appeared in various commercials and has played the lead in <em>Kyun Hota Hai Pyarrr</em> earlier on Star Plus. Bhabhi, for the uninitiated, is a transition from being an unrequited love story in the classical mould, to the story of a conflict of value systems in a marriage in today's urban consumerist society.

Manish Goel has been reinstated by UTV in Star Plus' afternoon daily <em>Bhabhi</em> with full honours. We mean, he is back on the company's afternoon soap 'Bhabhi'. Goel had been earlier dropped from the show after he allegedly had a physical altercation with an assistant director. UTV however, seems to be in the mood to let bygones be bygones. The actor was called and told that the technical unit had been changed and he need not worry about meeting the particular assistant director again. "It's great to be back. I was given a warm welcome," says Goel.

The youngest of them all is mother to a toddler and the oldest of the lot is just 56. But with a hike in the number of family dramas on TV, an increasing number of actresses have had to skip a generation and play grandmother to folks old enough to be their siblings. Prashant Golecha spoke to a few tele-grannies to fathom what made them accept the roles, whether they have eased into the grey that shades their lives now and how they cope with real life once the cameras are switched off.