When Gaatha makes its debut on STAR there will be one man sitting on the edge of his seat, his forehead all wrinkled up and his hands locked into each other.

A man whom you'd expect to be relaxed, considering the fact that he has given the small screen some of its best serials Hum Log, Buniyaad, Kakkaji Kahen.

But Manohar Shyam Joshi -- journalist, author, scriptwriter -- is not too comfortable about his new venture. "I am always nervous about a new project. I am a pessimist, so I start thinking about it as being a disaster. And Gaatha is such a big project. I don't know how I am going to go through with it, or how well the audience will accept it," admits Joshi, with a laugh.

And it's not just whether or not the serial will be a success that is bothering him. He is also disturbed by the fact that those "days of innocence" when "simple serials like Buniyaad and Hum Log became instant hits'' are long gone. Now, he says, is the time of channel surfing, about people calling each other names and slapping each other at will (in serials ofcourse). "You have to make something that is really dramatic, otherwise how will it engage the audience for 45 minutes?'' he adds.

This consideration is basically what makes Gaatha different from Buniyaad. Joshi terms Buniyaad as being a tale of two citiesDelhi and Lahoreand one family. "Gaatha is based only in Delhi and is more like one of those never-ending Russian novels. You have two families at the centre of all the action. But as the years pass, their families expand, there's a love angle and a nexus between politics and economics. It is a saga, but at the moment it is dukhaoing my maatha,'' he says worriedly.

Manohar Shyam Joshi sits with his typist from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm working on scripts. He is working on nine other serials. "I am working on projects for Basu Chatterjee, Kalpana Lajmi, and some producers in Delhi. But, frankly, I don't know when they will see the light of day.'' Joshi would like to produce a serial of his own, but, then "serial banane deta kaun hain''. So until he can make a serial, Joshi is prepared to settle for a documentatry and writing his new novel Kapishji. "That is the disadvantage of taking up professional assignments. Your creative work always gets postponed,'' regrets Joshi.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.