‘Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum’ Writers on Making a Different Daily Soap

Niranjan Iyengar and Ritu Goel talk about trying to change the daily soap game a little.

One of the most-talked about new daily soaps on television right now is a love story between a TV actor, Sonakshi, and a heart surgeon, Rohit, played quite brilliantly by Dipika Kakar and Karan V Grover, respectively.

While the daily soap space is crowded with saas-bahu sagas and supernatural plot-lines, Star Plus’ KHKT stands out for its treatment. It ditches being OTT (over the top) and adopts a more realistic approach to the drama.

In this week’s episode of Reel Deal, I talk to the show’s screenplay writer Ritu Goel and dialogue writer Niranjan Iyengar, about keeping the dialogues and performances a lot more candid than daily soaps generally do, keeping the plot developments in the realm of reality and starting a new trend in the daily soap genre.

Tune in to the podcast here.

Helmed by Sandiip Sikcand, directed by Sameer Kulkarni and written by Virendra Shahane, Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum has caught everyone’s attention for attempting a different treatment within the daily soap format.

Niranjan, who has worked on the dialogues of films like Kal Ho Naa Ho, Fashion, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Wake Up Sid, among others, has already completed writing dialogues for 40 episodes.

“After a long time there is a new cycle that has begun, and hopefully with Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum, where we have dialogues which are very everyday, spoken and even if you are talking about something philosophical, they are not dramatic because that’s not how we speak in real life.”

Niranjan Iyengar.

Speaking about keeping the dialogues on the show real and minimalist, Niranjan says, “Its been great because there has been no pressure from anyone. This is the tone that I wrote (in). They liked it and its been continuing so far. Everything is cyclical in life in general and in the entertainment business for sure. After a long time there is a new cycle that has begun, and hopefully with Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum, where we have dialogues which are very everyday, spoken and even if you are talking about something philosophical, they are not dramatic because that’s not how we speak in real life.”

“I am glad that the kind of writing that was restricted to films in comparison to television, I was allowed to do that in a very big way with Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum. Honestly, I am writing the dialogues of Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum, I am writing in the way that I would write in movies,” he adds.

Screenplay writer, Ritu Goel, who was worked in the film industry for almost two decades, says that the team is clear .

“What we are always trying to achieve whenever we are ideating is that everything we do we try to do is to keep root cause of any sequence in reality. In daily soaps we have to do some fantastical drama. But in that also whatever is happening to the characters the root of it we want to keep it in reality,” she says.

The challenge going forward, she admits, will be to keep it as “refreshing as it is at the moment.” And yes, things will continue to depend on the ratings. At the moment though Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum steadily making its way up the ratings ladder.