17 October 2005 (2005-10-17) – 28 May 2009 (2009-05-28)
Saat Phere – Saloni Ka Safar (International title: Saloni) is a Hindi television serial that was broadcast on Zee TV from 17 October 2005 to 28 May 2009.[2] The story focuses on Saloni, who faces social discrimination because of her dark skin.[3] The series starred Rajshree Thakur and Sharad Kelkar as main leads.[4]
Plot
The story revolves around the life of Saloni, who despite being dark-skinned, sets out to prove that it doesn't matter what skin colour you might be. She marries Nahar and begins her journey fulfilling the seven rounds she took at her marriage. Saloni faces many problems, particularly, discrimination for her skin colour.
However she is talented and sets out on a journey, to create an identity for herself. She faces many enemies such as Kaveri, Karan, Kuki Kaki, Padam, Chandni / Devika, Urvashi, Abhi, Varun and more. The series is titled Saat Phere in the context of seven rounds a couple takes at their wedding. This is Saloni's journey and after generation leap, her daughter Savri also faces many obstacles, in the end Saloni is reunited with her family and her daughters get married.
Cast
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Rajshree Thakur[5] as Saloni Singh – Narpat and Ambika's elder daughter; Shubhra and Samar's sister; Kalika's half-sister; Nahar's widow; Savri's mother; Shweta's adoptive mother (2005–2009)
Sujata Krishnamurthy as Guruma – Swami Amritanand's mother (2008–2009)
Production
In November 2008, the shootings and telecast of all the Hindi television series including this series and films were stalled on 8 November 2008 due to dispute by the technician workers of FWICE (Federation of Western India Cine Employees) for increasing the wages, better work conditions and more breaks between shootings.[6][7] FWICE first took a strike on 1 October 2008 when they addressed their problems with the producers and production was stalled.[8] A contract was signed after four days discussions and shooting were happening only for two hours content in a day then after which differences increased between them while channels gave them time until 30 October 2008 to sort it out.[9] Failing to do so lead to protests again from 10 November 2008 to 19 November 2008 during which channels blacked out new broadcasts and repeat telecasts were shown from 10 November 2008.[9][10] On 19 November 2008, the strike was called off after settling the disputes and the production resumed.[11] The new episodes started to telecast from 1 December 2008.[12][13]
Lead Sharad Kelkar was supposed to shoot for only 30 episodes for the series. But, good response for the series made him to continue until he quit before the generation leap.[14][15] However, he returned to the series for the finale episode.[14]
In October 2008, lead Rajshree Thakur confirmed quitting the show to spend time with her family and quit along with Kelkar when the series took a generation leap in April end of 2009.[16][15] In April 2009, the series took a generation leap with addition of new casts, with story focussing on lead character Saloni's children when Rachana Parulkar was cast as Saawri.[15][17]
The series which was one of the top rated show for a long time with more than 6+ TVR. Later, when the ratings dipped, a generation leap was taken which was also unsuccessful in increasing the ratings as before which made channel to end the series in the same month after it.[18] Speaking about ending the series, Producer Sunjoy Wadhwa said, "Saat Phere was Saloni’s story. The leap meant regenerating a story from scratch, which isn’t working for us. So, it’s best to end it now" and stated its ended on 22 May 2009.[19] However, it ended on 28 May 2009.[20]
Reception
Critics
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Initially, it ranged between 1.8-2 TVR. Within a month it started averaging 2-3 TVR and then gradually increased until ranging 6+TVR during 2006 becoming one of the most watched Hindi GEC.[22] In April and May, it averaged 4.44 TVR overall.[23] In December 2006, it garnered 5.1 TVR.[24] In week ending 17 March 2007, it garnered 1.59 TVR.[25] As in July 2007, it averaged 3.4 TVR.[26]
The highest rating garnered in its runtime was 6.61 TVR during May 2006.[27]
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