What makes Kuch Toh Log Kahenge popular

Kuch Toh Log Kahenge is high on romance and drama.

From the soap-op's sets, A Ganesh Nadar observes how the backstage works.

A huge bungalow in Madh Island, a once picturesque resort in northwest Mumbai, is fitted out like a nursing home, complete with wards, an ICU, an operating theatre and pretty nurses looking bored.

This is the location for Sony Entertainment's two-month-old serial, Kuch Toh Log Kahenge, a hospital drama.

When I arrived on the sets, actress Ishita Sharma is sleeping in her vanity van, but gracious not to throw me out for disturbing her.

Ishita plays Anji, a childhood friend of lead actress Nidhi (Krithika Kamra), who is an intern at the hospital and in love with the handsome, fortyish, Dr Ashutosh (Mohnish Behl).

Ashutosh takes himself and his work very seriously and -- here's the third angle of the eternal love triangle -- has a colleague Dr Mallika (Ruksar) who has been in love with him for like forever. He, of course, sees her just as a good friend.

There's another love angle -- Dr Ranganath, who is in love with Anji, but Anji is seemingly not interested in him.

Get the drift?

The serial is being shot simultaneously on three sets in the same studio, on different floors. Shooting is so hectic that the lunch break is taken at 4 pm.

Which is when I get to have a word with Mohnish.

He has the delicate looks of his late mother Nutan. He modestly denies that he has looked the same for the last 30 years, and then adds, "I think it's genetic. Both my parents looked good past 50, so maybe they have given me that gift. Till she was 54, mom did not have a wrinkle on her face or a strand of grey."

The serial takes up 17 days in a month, 12 hours a day. "You can be choosy when you have choices. At one time, 400 films were made every year. Today it's about 50 films made every year," points out Mohnish.

Most of the films being made today are A-grade movies, he adds, which is "good for cinema, but bad for artists looking for work."

Discussing the rom-soap's storyline, Mohnish says that as Dr Ashutosh, he knows that the senior Dr Mallika is in love with him, but he is not in love with her.

He is not yet in love with the junior Dr Nidhi, and is not sure if she is in love with him. Later, he realises he has fallen in love with her and questions these feelings.

Kritika, who plays the bubbly, cheerful Nidhi, says the love story is different from others she has acted in because of the big age difference between the couple.

"I have a difficult role as the character I play is nothing like me," she says. "She is hyper and possessive and I am not. When I have to shout and cry, it is a little difficult."

In real life would she fall in love with a guy 20 years older than her? She says she doesn't know; love cannot be planned.

"Love is a silly feeling anyway," she says, "love is blind, love does not see all these things you point out like age and looks. If you love someone, you do so irrespective of everything."

She has been acting for four years now, after doing a course in fashion and communication at NIFT, Delhi.

She got her first role when she was in the first year of college. "I am enjoying myself," she says. "I am doing what I like and want to do. It doesn't matter if I don't complete my education."

Ruksar, who plays the more mature Dr Mallika, has the difficult role of being in love with the same man for 12 years, who doesn't love her back, but doesn't let her go as he needs her as a friend.

She has done several movies, but this is only her second television serial.

In real life, she says, she'd find someone else if the guy she loved didn't reciprocate.

And while it would be okay if women fell in love with her husband, should he fall in love with another woman, she would kick him out of the house!

Chandan, the serial's executive producer, expects the serial to be on air for at least three years.

"It's a topic everyone likes -- love," he tells me. "First, they will not express it, then there is an age gap between the main love pair, and then there is his college friend who is in love with him. Such a play of emotions is always appreciated by the audience of soaps," he says.

Chandan keeps track of the TRP ratings, uses feedback from friends and critics, has regular meetings with the creative team and the Sony television channel, to keep abreast of subtle changes in the audience's tastes and make the necessary adjustments in future episodes.

Kuch Toh Log Kahenge has these three very good looking women and a very handsome hero. The acting is restrained and the serial flows along smoothly. What it lacks, though, is humour.