KOLKATA: Various key locations of Kolkata, the city of Joy, including Howrah Bridge, Victoria Memorial, tram lines travelling to the Kalighat Temple and Millenium Park, have been captured for a new Hindi TV show Swaragini.

The team of the serial, which highlights the cultural conflicts between two neighbouring families, launched the new entertainment show here.

The leading faces of the show include Helly Shah and Tejaswi Prakash Wayangankar who play Swara Bose and Ragini Gadodia respectively.

Swaragini tells the story of how Swara and Ragini discover their true identities and hold onto their family ties amid fractured relationships, which are the result of a certain past.

Swara is a vibrant, fun loving and friendly girl brought up in an open-minded Bengali family. She lives life on her own terms, takes her own decisions and enjoys the small joys of life. She has lived the most part of her life at her maternal house with her maternal grandmother and brought up by a single mother, who is like her friend and confidante.

Talking about playing the character, Helly said, “Swara is very similar to what I am in real life. The only difference is I am Gujarati and she is Bengali. Swara as Bengali is a non-vegetarian eating person, but in real life I am a vegetarian.”

The promos of the show depict the Bengali family cooking fish. For Helly, shooting with the fish was quite an experience.

“I never thought I will hold fish in my hand, but I did. It was very scary, almost like a nightmare but I did it for one of the opening sequences,” Helly said.

On the other hand, Tejaswi’s character Ragini is a simple, down to earth and obedient girl. She belongs to a Marwari family and believes in listening to whatever her elders tell her to do. She resides with her father and grandparents. She loses her mother to illness but holds her memories dear.

Tejaswi added, “There is lot of similarity and dissimilarity. Since I play a Marwari, I can’t eat non-vegetarian but I am hardcore non-vegetarian in real life. Also, I was supposed to be a classically trained singer, so I learnt classical singing and obviously when it comes to family, I follow my elders but I don’t belong to a conservative family, unlike what is seen in this show.”

Swaragini, produced by Rashmi Sharma from Rashmi Sharma Telefilms, also features other characters — Shobha Bose played by Tanima Sen, Sharmishtha Bose played by Parinita Borthakur, Parvati Gadodia played by Alka Kaushik and Shekhar Gadodia played by Sachin Tyagi.

With this show, Bengali actress Tanima Sen is also making her debut in Hindi showbiz.