EXCLUSIVE: Ishqbaaaz writer Harneet Singh decodes Shivika's romance; answers questions about the show and the criticism she faces

Ishqbaaaz writer Harneet Singh in an exclusive interview with Pinkvilla gets candid about her show, Shivika's chemistry and much more.

By Bhavna Agarwal

Updated on Aug 18, 2017 | 03:47 PM IST | 1.1M

For the loyal Ishqbaaaz fans, Harneet Singh is a well-known name. She is the co-captain of the show, the brain behind Shivaay Singh Oberoi [Nakuul Mehta] and Anika [Surbhi Chandna], who have managed to captivate our hearts like never before.

If Shivika is the heart and soul of the show, Harneet is oxygen that makes sure the chemistry between the two gets better with every passing day. The show has time and again broken many gender stereotypes and is known for its extravagance- be it the set or their costumes. A family entertainer, Ishqbaaaz is known for gifting fans some magical moments.

Currently, one of the most popular shows on Television, this story of brothers and Shivika is now been dubbed in a number of languages including Malayalam.

However, being a writer of a popular show like IB comes with its own pros and cons.

In an exclusive interview with Pinkvilla, Harneet, spoke at length about her vision for the show, her love and hate relationship with fans, the current 'shaadi' track, Shivika and their romance and much more.

Over to Harneet;

Let's start with the most important question here, how do you handle the extreme criticism [read- abusive tweets] that comes your way on social media?

I will be very honest, it has taken a lot of time for me to deal with this. Earlier, I used to wonder what has gone wrong, it is a show for entertainment, why are people taking every scene and ripping it apart? I myself love constructive feedback, but every criticism needs to be done after something is over given that this is a daily show and there are so many things which are in continuation, there is a character graph. While I think this also comes from a lot of love for the show because they take efforts to see and find out about me to give me gaalis but then some of them are very nasty. It gets dirty when they write personal comments, when they use derogatory words for the actors, for us and the team, it is painful.

With social media, it has become easier for fans to connect with the makers of their favourite shows. However, it can be noted that sometimes they come up with bizarre demands. Does that in anyway affect the script?

What happens is we know what the story is about and where it is going. Sometimes, the demands are bizarre but then we have to be truthful to our characters. No one wants separation [Shivika] but we knew we needed it because it is a journey of trust. Once they fight this, only then they will be able to accept each other. You don't know the true roots of your relationship until it passes the test of time. Shivaay and Anika have to find how strong their bond is to find how strong their trust on each other is and that is why we need this separation track so that they can come back stronger.

I see a lot of messages saying Is Shivaay so dumb? Why can't he react? But just imagine, for someone whose life revolves around his family, how will he accept that the lady he loved- his mother, is actually not his mother? Once you remove Oberoi from Shivaay, what will happen we will have to see.

The fans sometimes react negatively to such tracks but we try to strike a balance but otherwise if you look at some of their other demands, they expect me to write porn. It is sometimes cute because it is a fantasy world for them but sometimes it gets really embarrassing.

Also, people forget that we are writing all the characters not just Shivaay and Anika. I have to be true to all of them.

Apart from Shivika, it is the ShivOmRu bond which is really adored by fans and now with three parallel love stories going on, is it difficult to strike a balance?

Balancing is difficult because all the characters are being loved and have their own fan following. We have to see what track we are playing. Like right now, though it is Shivaay and Anika's wedding, the fixer is Gauri. People see every relationship romantically because it is a love story but for me, each character's individual journey is also important. Rudra is my favourite character because I can put him anywhere and he changes the scene. He has an individual relationship with everyone which has evolved over the time and these things take time.

People don't understand that Shivika has had a journey of 350 episodes but Omkara-Gauri, Rudra-Bhavya haven't. Our struggle is that we want the love graph to grow higher but we also want the individual graph to go high. This becomes difficult and that is why we had the spin off [Dil Bole Oberoi] but now that it is an hour episode, we try to give space to everybody but sometimes it goes up and down depending on what track is playing. I sometimes feel that the fans should look at the content and growth of the character rather than fighting over the screen time.

One of the most remembered or hated track was Shivika's forced marriage. The visuals were highly violent which also garnered you a lot of criticism. If given a chance, would you want to go back and change anything there?

The way Shivaay was going to get married to Anika created a huge furore. I remember, there was a lot of hate towards Shivaay's character but we knew that he will be doing that, that he will flip because it came from his character and we also knew how will he redeem himself. When we were discussing it, I was not comfortable about it. I was not agreeing with what Shivaay was doing. However, my job as a writer was to try and understand why Shivaay was doing that and make it look as convincing as possible. When we were discussing this track, we were sure that this track will flip the show. The beast in Shivaay had to come out because he was cornered. There was always a beast in him which was controlled by his brothers- Omkara and Rudra. In his head, he was ruined and fighting a war. With circumstances, the beast in him comes out. If you look at those visuals, I think Nakuul and Surbhi performed it brilliantly. In fact, better than my imagination. That moment was important because that is what he is going to change after all.

Did you have any creative differences with Nakuul or Surbhi over any track or scene?

I think Nakuul and Surbhi are very professional actors. We work as a team very well and we discuss everything. Actors having any creative difference has never come to us at least and whatever we have written has always come onscreen. This is the greatness of this team where we trust each other. The actors trust that the writers will give their best and vice versa. We have together been able to create some magical moments.

Fans feel that the current separation track is being dragged. Your comments?

According to viewers, Shivaay and Anika should have met in the first episode, fall in love, get married and have children. There is a reason why this track is happening because Shivaay wants to know the truth from Anika. But here, she is now being the protector and hence asking him to accept her the way she is without knowing the truth. She is not ready to tell him the truth fearing that it will break him. In the guise of 'farq' and 'haq' there is deep conflict, we chose to show it in a bantering style because we are not making a sloppy melodrama. Our characters always have that 'tu tu main main'. The track is not being dragged and is very important so that Shivaay learns from it. The day Shivaay finds out what this girl has been sacrificing for him, that day he will become a true 'Ishqbaaaz'.

Anika is one eccentric character who has redefined the bahu sagas on TV. What was the inspiration behind this character?

Anika is like Gul and me because we will do our own thing. She is a girl of today who is lost in life but she has chosen to not sulk about it. She is a fighter and has fought many battles in life but has never let that affect her believe in herself. She has issues with God, she names thing which I do. When you are crafting a character, so much of yourself you put in them that you don't even realise that it becomes an extension of you. We wanted to create a girl who is relatable to girls of today. She is so confident that she even speaks in her 'tadi wala' language in front of Shivaay. She is fearless. Anika's world view is very different from Shivaay, she has seen life through a different lens but yet both come together for the family. We wanted the character to stand out and hence this.

Anika's vocabulary is one of a kind. From where did you come up with words like 'tadi', 'khidkitod'?

I think full credits to the dialogue writers. Words in Anika's dictionary makes her unique. We also use the same words and make it a point to repeat it during the scenes so that it becomes part of the character.

Nakuul and Surbhi make Shivika romantic scenes look so seamless, however, to imagine and write such scenes seems like a difficult job. Your inspiration?

There is a reason for every romantic scene, it takes their love graph forward. They take the emotional quotient forward, their journey forward. How do I imagine them? I don't know. If I knew what the process is I would bottle it up so that I could use it anytime. However, I think sometimes it is just an inspiration. Magic just happens.

For example, a year back Shivaay wouldn't have helped Anika wear bangles but now if he does, he will kiss her after every step. That kind of intimacy he could only do now and not then. It is his way of saying that I find you desirable.

The show has had some extremely cute moments like the 'blush', 'hug' moments. What was the thought behind these?

When we show romance, we always try to show it in a very candy floss kind of a way. We shy away from showing intimacy. Intimacy between a couple is much more romantic. We were very sure with Shivaay and Anika that we wanted to show a normal couple. It is a very beautiful moment when you see a husband telling his wife that they are married and that she can hug him because he knows that she is shy and new to all this. There will be another crawl moment which you will be seeing soon which will be very funny too.

Your favourite scenes so far?

The wedding track was one of my favourite because both my characters had shaken their foundation. It was difficult to write it convincingly. I enjoyed the memory loss track a lot because of the things Shivaay was doing to get her memory back. The OBRO moments and I like the separation track too when Shivaay was completely different, sleeping on the floor, not bothered about anything, it broke my heart yaar to write that. I also like the Mahi-Shivaay face off. Nakuul did it so well.

The sudden flip in Pinky's character left everyone confused. Your take?

Pinky was always supposed to be one without a finesse character and the reason is that she is so bitter and unhappy with her life which comes in her every relationship. You cannot see anybody happy when you are yourself not happy. Whatever she is doing now is out of insecurity because his son is in love with some other woman. She flips the day she sees her son taking a bullet for Anika. So, it is a very genuine character. This is no typical saas-bahu relationship. Anika did not leave the house because of Pinky, she left it because she wanted to protect Shivaay of the truth of their parenting.

Ishqbaaaz has set a trend for itself when it comes to the costumes and extravagance. Is this coincidental or a lot of thoughts go behind all this?

My producer Gul gives a lot of weight to the execution. There has been a lot of thoughts that have gone behind each costume and theme because that is what defines our characters and it makes us happy when we see other shows now following it.