Not that Sarang hasn't had his share of success earlier with Umeed and Shatranj. In 1996, he won the Best Director Screen Videocon award for the latter. But Aashirwaad has been the tops. ``Initially, I was not sure whether it would work or not,'' reflects Sarang, ``In fact, when I started Aashirwaad, I thought it would be difficult handling a family soap as the serials I've done earlier had an element of the thriller in them. I was worried that viewers would find the subject outdated. But I'm happy for the kind of success it has today,'' and he, then, adds after a little pause, ``I know the job, I can say proudly I'm one of the best at it.'' Well, if the soap's success is anything to go by, we can't argue with that estimate.

According to Sarang this success, has been possible because of the entire team's hard work -- right from the scriptwriter to the spot boy. And like director Lekh Tandon, he too is all praise for his producer, Manish Goswami: Sarang says Goswami doesn't interfere in creative matters and there are no financial hassles. ``Why do you think there are never two heads of one department?'' he asks and continues, ``Manish understands this fact and trusts me and lets me do my job. He comes to the sets for just 10 minutes. You should trust a man or throw him out''. Sarang's shot another soap, a political thriller Abhimaan for Goswami which stars Kanwaljeet, Govind Namdeo, Sachin Khedekar, Divya Seth, Arundhati. It's about powerful people in today's society and a common woman's survival as she is overpowered by her husband. ``It's not a Rajani,'' protests Sarang ``I want to show the realistic things and the reasons why a woman doesn't revolt. If I show the facts, maybe someday they will revolt''.

With a serial called Hukumat, Rakesh Sarang has also turned producer in association with Mir Muneer. That show revolves around the underworld. He is producing this serial mainly because it's an expensive project, one which will cost a lot of money till the very last episode, and no producer was therefore, willing come forward. Sarang claims to have used the best of cars, bungalows and has shot the serial on the roads of Mumbai ``I want this to be remembered and I'm doing it for my satisfaction, not that I'm not satisfied with Aashirwaad but here it'd be little more.''

Sarang's plus point is that he is also cinematographer of the serials that he directs and this is where he scores over his contemporaries. He thinks being a cameraman and a director only helps making things easier and more beautiful. ``If I was only a director I'd narrate my visualisation to the cameraman without knowing how much he has grasped,'' he explains.

Success hasn't gone to Sarang's head and he feels that success changes you only if you let it. ``There has been a change in respect, status, money, the way people look at you after this success. But I haven't changed. You can see I used to be in my cotton casuals, jeans and Nike shoes before and even today I'm wearing the same stuff,'' he points out.

Sarang's first independent serial as a cameraman was with Shrimaan Shrimati and then V3+ saw his directorial debut. How did he get to Aashirwaad and Goswami? This calls for a quick flashback. After Umeed and Shatranj went off the air, he was literally unemployed for two years. Suddenly things changed: ``My phone which used to ring from morning 7.30 pm to 1.30 pm in the night, just stopped buzzing,'' he recalls. He then took over Mirabai of which he directed five episodes, but that too went off the air. Since he had not been paid by the producers of the serial, UTV, he was constantly pestering UTV's production manager on the phone. His name happened to be Manish Goswami, who would avoid Sarang's calls.

One day someone passed on a mobile number saying it was Manish Goswami's and Rakesh who was desperately trying to get his money called up that cellphone number and started abusing the man on the other end. Call it luck or fate, the cell number happened to be producer Manish Goswami's! ``When I started yelling, Manish only asked me -- `whom do you want to talk to?'. Later the misunderstanding got cleared. He called me over and asked me if I'd be interested in doing Aashirwaad,'' Sarang recounts. Is he satisfied with where he is today? ``Not at all,'' he beams. ``I can't be satisfied. When I'm satisfied I'll declare my retirement''. Well, in that case, may he be dissatisfied forever.