Poonam Dhillon is venturing into television software production, under the baton, Plan Productions. She will host a programme calledThe Restaurant Show, to be aired on DD2 from July 9, at 2.35 pm. The highlight of the programme, apart from Poonam herself of course, is that it profiles the best restaurants all over the country. It will review the decor, ambience and the exquisite cuisine of the restaurants. Nelson Wang ofChina Garden will share some of his best-rated recipes, and some ofKhyber's best kept culinary secrets will be revealed on the show. The programme will cover all kinds of Indian and international cuisine.

Promo problem

Channels should vet advertisements appearing on their channel with care. Take the Nescafe ad on STAR Plus, last week, during the series Chicago Hope. It had a small child drinking a coffee milk shake. Now everyone knows that coffee is not very good for grown ups, never mind children. Someone needs to be hauled up and the advertising agency which conceived of this delightful campaign should be warned to be a little more health conscious.

Job hopping

Ishan Trivedi, programming executive, who had moved from STAR TV to ZEE is disillusioned with the workings of Zee and quits on the 14th of June. This was one man who was known for his forthrightness and integrity. But aren't these the ones who pose threats to the oh-so-diplomatic-executives?

Party pooper

The party to celebrate the launch of Ravi Rai's serial Thoda hai, thode ki jarurat hai (Sony), which went on air last week, was something worth forgetting. Many journalists did not turn up. Worse still, most of the star cast also decided to skip the event. It seems they were peeved at not being invited for the launch. Now it turns out that the Sony PR department had bungled badly -- they forgot to send invitations to the cast!

Breaking myths

Kamlesh Pandey, the producer of Mrs Madhuri Dikshit (Zee), the new comedy, is all set to change the way mythological serials are made. He is planning a serial which will be a potpourri of mythology, history, science fiction and special effects. In it, people will communicate through light and `see' things through sound. Pandey has a low opinion of the current breed of "psuedo-mythologicals". He feels that they are an insult to Indian mythology, which is the richest in the world. He accuses producers of churning out low quality serials merely to make money. "These people exploit religious sentiment and are sure that no matter what they show, people will buy it. Their serials are like aRamleela performed by boys on a nukkad. They get away because they are powerful people with connections," he says.

Tit for tat

Renuka Shahane has just about had it with crank calls. The callers call at all odd hours to sing odes to her and tell her how much she means to them. Even her answering machine is jammed with messages from her love-struck fans and practical jokers. Now she is in a mood to hit back. She wants to have a caller identification system installed to tell her the numbers from which the calls were made. But she does not want to go to the cops with the information. She is all for giving them a dose of their own medicine. She plans to call the callers at all odd times and give them a piece of her mind. So next time you call Renuka, watch out: you might just get a call from her in the middle of the night.

500... and still going strong

The serialSwabhimaan celebrated its 500 episode in style. Plus Channel, the producer, held the party on the rooftop of a hotel. And despite the balmy night, stars were seen everywhere. Kitu Gidwani, Anju Mahendroo, Rohit Roy, Deepak Parashar and others from the cast were spotted. Of interest was the presence of owners of `competing' production houses. Harish Thawani from Nimbus was there. So was Dheeraj Kumar. The star performance of the evening was a puppet show, a spoof on Swabhimaan, which upturned all equations in the serial. And that is not the end of the story. The serial is slated to continue for another 536 episodes! After all, as someone remarked,Swabhimaan has been Plus Channel's saviour and bread-winner. "Plus earns money from this serial and puts it in other projects. Only to lose it. So they finally end up with nothing!"

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.