Producer and director Shubhdarshini Singh, 61, is busy wrapping up the shooting of Ek Tha Rusty II in Mussoorie and Garhwal, a television series based on short stories by writer Ruskin Bond.
Rusty is a bio-fictional character created by Ruskin Bond, who has featured in many of his stories. Singh says it was her long cherished dream to make a series for children. She shares, “When I started out in 1989, I wanted to make a series for children. It was then I asked Ruskin (Bond) if I could make it on his stories, and he agreed. As I read his works, I began seeing the beautiful quality of his stories where his characters aren’t categorised as good or bad. The first series Ek Tha Rusty happened in mid-90s for Doordarshan. In the second series, Rusty is now 30 years old and it features stories such as The Sensualist, Love is a Sad Song, Who Killed the Rani?, Time Stops at Shamli amongst others.”
The star cast is impressive with actress Suhasini Mulay, Ayub Khan and Vipul Gupta as Rusty. Interestingly, Ruskin Bond’s great-granddaughter, teenager Shristi Bond, is also acting in the series. Singh says, “She has a distinct face and was eager to act. She has done a good job. I’ve given her a distinct yet wonderful hairdo similar to former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko.”
The stories are set in the Sixties, and Singh found it challenging to recreate that era in present day Mussoorie. She says, “Mussoorie used to be a quaint little town, but not any more. It has become commercialised and it was difficult for us to find places with hollow oaks and deodars to shoot. It was difficult to recreate the 60s era as houses have changed, the Mall road has become crowded and people have painted geysers outside their homes and the roads are full of hoardings. But we still managed to shoot. We created the interiors of a bar in my basement in Delhi and we will be shooting some portions there. We are in the final leg of our shoot.”
When asked if Ruskin Bond has seen her previous series and if he features in this one, Singh says, “Ruskin would often come to the sets and helped us immensely ever since we started shooting. He guided me about the music of the 60s and explained his charactors and even renamed Shamli to Hope Town (a place) for us, which couldn’t be shown as a barren land today. His insights were valuable and he’s very excited about his great-granddaughter playing Rusty’s love interest.”
In today’s times of reality shows and saas-bahu sagas, Singh is hopeful of a positive reaction from the audience. “There has to be variety on television. People like to watch out for what isn’t there. Such series are rare and I do hope Ek Tha Rusty II due to be telecast on DD National is successful commercially as well,” says Singh.