'Razia Sultan': On The Sets

‘Razia Sultan’ the great female empresses played important role in Indian history. So when the opportunity came to visit the lavish sets of &TV’s grand historical show ‘Razia Sultan’ it was difficult to refuse. It was a refreshing change from the hustle bustle of Mumbai as I travelled on a rain soaked Mumbai –Ahmedabad Highway towards Vrindavan Studio situated at Umbergaon in Gujarat to witness ‘Razia Sultan’ of small screen.

The show produced by Swastik Productions has debutant Pankhuri Awasthy in the title role of ‘Razia Sultan’. Dressed in warrior attire complete with metal body armour, Pankhuri looks every inch a princess. What she lacks in physical attribute, she makes it up with her tough attitude and body language suitable for a warrior queen.

It’s stiflingly hot with torches burning at regular distance to give the set the realistic look of hidden cave/chamber. ‘Razia’ is trying to revive unconscious ‘Mirza Altunia’ which is hurt in a fight with her brothers. Rohit Purohit who plays ‘Mirza Altunia’ was lying on Razia’s lap while the latter rebukes her brothers for hurting Mirza cheatingly. It was proving difficult for Pankhuri to maintain a straight face during the rehearsals as she couldn’t control her laugh!

‘Razia’ and ‘Mirza’ rehearsed their dialogues couple of time before going for the final take. The duo shared an easy camaraderie which was apparent when they gave the perfect shot in a single take, much to the production team’s delight.

In spite, it was hot and suffocating due to all the fire and smoke, Rohit Purohit was looking cool as cucumber in his heavy Zardosi worked purple angrakha. He even took out a minute from the on-going shoot to pose for our camera.

Pankhuri and Ankit Arora might be playing half siblings lusting after each other’s blood, but off-screen the duo seems quite close. Both seem to enjoy each other’s company in between the shots and during the breaks. The duo even preferred to give combined interview to the media.

After spending a considerable time witnessing the lead trio fight for the throne, we decided to take a tour of the magnificent sets. The project head of the show Viplu Jagota informed us that taking the inspiration from the Uzbekistan architecture, the set designed by Omang Kumar is primarily done in blue and gold colour. The main areas include (Clockwise), Darbar exterior, Darbar interior, Dargah and Hammam exterior.

There are also few areas like, Shamshad Begum Room, Turkan Room and Market Place. Instead of regular POP, the set has been made of fiber material. It has increased the production cost tremendously but is practically beneficial in the long run as fiber objects are movable and water resistant.

While the young actors are fighting it out in an action sequence, for the senior ones its clash of emotions. Shah Turkan played by Sambhavna Seth provokes Shamshad Begum played by Seema Kapoor to take Razia and Altunia’s Agni Pariksha.

Seema Kapoor has ruled the small screen in the 90’s when satellite channels where launched. The actress par excellence, Seema enjoys playing ‘Shamshad Begum’. “Like my on-screen character, I am also a no non-sense, disciplined person. I stick to my principals just like ‘Shamshad’.” The thing she would love to change about ‘Shamshad’ is, “I wish she should be little more modern in her thinking and more lenient.”

After participating in various reality shows, Sambhavna Seth has entered fiction shows with ‘Razia Sultan’ in which she portrays the character of ‘Shah Turkan’, Sultan’s mistress and later wife. When we entered Sambhavna’s make up room, we found her in a rather cute company- her pet dog ‘Candy’!

Sambhavna even took ‘Candy’ on the sets while she faced the camera opposite Seema Kapoor. The actress known for her bold and loud image does a complete contrast by effortlessly rendering Urdu dialogue as ‘Shah Turkan’. It left us baffled when we came to know that media savy Sambhavna left the sets without interacting with us due to some squabble with the production team.

Talking about his chemistry with his on-screen mother, ‘Shah Turkan’ aka Sambhavna Seth, Ankit revealed, “We did an item song in the past. It took us awhile to get into the roles of mother and son.” He further added, “From doing an item song together to historical show like ‘Razia Sultan’, we have come a long way as actors.”