MUMBAI: Ask any young girl, and her wedding is likely to be the most eagerly awaited occasion of her life, where she harbours a zillion dreams about the kind of man she should marry.

However, life doesn’t always unfold the way you’ve envisioned it; which is the crux of Zee TV’s new offering *Doli Armaanon Ki*, set to come to drawing rooms at 10.30pm every Monday to Friday, starting 2 December.

Produced by Pearl Grey Spellbound Productions, the series will replace the current Punar Vivah – Ek Nayi Umeed, a Shashi-Sumeet production that scored 3,439 TVTs in week 45 of TAM TV ratings. Earlier, Pearl Grey had produced shows like Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya in collaboration with Walkwater Media on Star Plus and Rishton Se Badi Pratha on Colors.

The series is going to be a slot leader in few weeks, says a confident Ajay Bhalwankar

Set in Jhansi, *Doli Armaanon Ki *tells the story of Urmi (played by Neha Marda of Balika Vadhu fame), who, like most other girls her age, aspires for marital bliss and walks into her marriage with actor Mohit Malik, her eyes brimming with hope.

Alas, her better half turns out to be a workaholic with rather strong views on how a couple must relate to each other. Completing the series’ cast are veteran actors Geeta Tyagi and Anjali Mukhi.

Says Zeel head-content, Hindi GECs, Ajay Bhalwankar: “The new series is about expectations, a woman has from marriage. We thought of this concept, because the subject matter is very close to women’s and everybody’s hearts.

It talks about a bride’s journey of hope,” stressing that, “Zee usually sticks with its convictions, which we will always.”

So far, none of the episodes have been canned apart from the promos, which are already on air. One month of scripting is complete while set preparation is going on in full swing in Jhansi. Shooting on location will start 19 November onward. As of now, only five days of outdoor have been shot.

All said, Bhalwankar is confident Zee’s new series will crack slot leaders within a few weeks of its launch. “Zee TV has to be number one in the next six months. Look at the amount of launches that have happened in the past six months. And the kind of slot leadership we’ve managed to get with the new shows; Zee TV has already been number one on that count. Like you see, Jodha Akbar is already number one on the slot; Sapne Suhane is number one on the slot. So the kind of success ratio we have managed, no one else has,” he says.

He emphasises that with the kind of new story they have, the new series should become slot leader very soon. “The battle is not tough. The slot is very warm. And with our strong storyline and concept, this show can reach one crore plus viewership. Plus, our TG is the whole family. At the end of the day, if men don’t see, they won’t understand the cause through our concept,” he adds.

On her part, Pearl Grey Spellbound Productions producer Pearl Grey says:

“Somewhere, a part of me which is there, I always think about these things as something I always wanted. I did not want to be a career woman; I only wanted to get married. But life takes you somewhere else. So we started with this thought, that every girl has a dream of getting married. We have shown her dreams turning into reality.”

Grey, who has been part of Zee TV’s in-house programming team, says: “It is an absolute pleasure to associate with the channel once again, this time as a producer.”

Asked why they zeroed in on Jhansi, she says: “We are portraying the story of a girl who belongs to a small town and mostly, all people who belong to small towns have these expectations about wanting to get married. We chose Jhansi also for the language and it’s my birthplace, so I know exactly the needs and wants of people there.”

While marketing activities haven’t been planned yet, the channel has created an official facebook page on 10 November, which, until now, has garnered 573 likes. The series is being promoted on Zee TV’s official page as well.

For all Zee TV’s enthusiasm about its new baby, media planners feel people are going to find it difficult to choose with so many new shows coming up.

“Viewers will go crazy one day with a host of shows just punching in. And I don’t believe that the concept is something that will be watched by the entire family. It has acquired the slot where there are already established shows on other GECs and breaking its loyal viewers to come and watch something, the concept has to be really very strong,” says a planner on condition of anonymity.

With competition from the likes of Veera on Star Plus, Savdhaan India on Life OK, Bani - Ishq Da Kalma on Colors, F.I.R on Sab and Bade Ache Lagte hai on Sony, only time will tell how Doli fares in comparison...