A brand new lifestyle channel, Star Life, will debut with five new shows on DStv and GOtv today, Monday, August 27, exclusively for its African audience.
Below are the programmes:
Let’s Dance (A Reality Show)
The show is a competition where 10 television celebrity couples compete against each other. Contestants dance to a different tune, different theme and different styles every week and scores are given by the judges. Each week one couple is eliminated based on public voting and their scores. But Season 8 is a bit different because the contestants are not all television celebrities.
Forever Yours
Anshuman (Mohammed Iqbal Khan), owner of Rathor Mansion in Shimla, was married by his father to a girl named Paakhi (Shraddha Arya) at a very young age. Tension between the two families resulted in Paakhi not going to her in-laws’ house. Anshuman married a girl of his choice when he came of age, but she died in a car accident and left him with a son named Ayan (Divyam Dama). Time passed and Anshuman decided to marry Tanya (Madhura Naik), the daughter of a rich businessman. But when the news of his first wife is exposed, he unwillingly has to take Paakhi in. As Anshuman wants to marry Tanya, he and his sister, Lavanya (Rukhsar Rehman), try to taunt and bully Paakhi into agreeing to a divorce, but Paakhi doesn’t bend and Anshuman begins falling in love with her.
When Paakhi realises that it was Anshuman and not just Lavanya who wanted her to go, not wanting him to be blamed for their divorce, she calls the media and announces that she is the one who wanted it for part of Rathor property as alimony. As Paakhi prepares to leave Rathor Mansion, her brother-in-law Girish (Sachin Shroff) convinces her Anshuman is in love with her and not with Tanya. Paakhi returns to Rathor Mansion and asks for a week’s challenge in exchange for the divorce. The challenge is that Tanya has to manage the household on a weekly budget.
Tanya wins the challenge, but Anshuman says that he still cannot ask Paakhi to leave as she has become like a real mother to Ayan. It is then revealed that Tanya cheated in the challenge by taking money from Ayan’s piggy bank, and that she brainwashed Ayan to belie that Anshuman had killed his first wife so he would side with her. Realising that her plan has fallen flat, Tanya tries to kill Paakhi in her desperation but fails. Anshuman drives Tanya out of the house and declares his love for Paakhi.
For revenge, Tanya creates circumstances leading Anshuman to believe that Paakhi is cheating on him and he confronts and humiliates her, which causes her to leave. Anshuman realizes that he misunderstood Paakhi and writes to her to come back. Paakhi writes back, saying she can’t live with him. Anshuman visits her village to convince her to return, but she moves to New Delhi. There she meets Devki (Anita Raj), Anshuman’s long-lost mother who was banished by his father, accusing her of cheating, when he was a child, and reunites her with her son, who follows Paakhi to apologise. Paakhi forgives him and agrees to return to Shimla with him to restart their life.
Unfortunately, Paakhi’s dreams and happiness are destroyed when Anshuman is killed by his younger, look-alike brother, Aryaman (Mohammed Iqbal Khan). Paakhi stops grieving and grows stronger as she realises she has to look after her husband’s business and after Ayan. Anshuman’s cousin Veer Pratap Singh (Veer) (Varun Badola) helps Paakhi do this and she later marries him under pressure by her family. Paakhi also adopts a troubled teenaged girl named Priya (Jasmine Avasia) who was thrown out by her father. Veer and Paakhi realise that she will never be able to move on from Anshuman’s death and get a divorce.
Not Without My Family
A young couple, Akshara and Naitik Singhania, live in a Marwari joint family in Udaipur. They adjust as a married couple, as parents of young children, and as their extended families mature.
Naitik falls into a coma in an accident; four years later he returns to the family and struggles to gain acceptance from his five-year-old son, Naksh. Naitik’s mother dies and his father marries a divorcee with two children.
Later, when her husband dies, Naitik’s elder aunt blames Akshara and kicks her out of the house; Naitik, Akshara, Naksh and newborn Naira leave their extended family.
The family live in Cape Town for several years. An adult Naksh returns to Udaipur and counsels his great aunt, who is convinced to forgive Akshara and the family returns. Naksh falls in love with Tara and wedding plans are made, but she breaks up with him minutes before the ceremony.
Teenaged Naira runs away from Akshara and lives in Rishikesh for a time. When she returns, a love triangle forms between Naira, her cousin Gayu, and Naitik’s employee Kartik. Naira considers setting aside her feelings so Gayu can be happy, but after a time Naira and Kartik confess their love for each other.
Later, Akshara dies in a car accident and a drunk Kartik is blamed, dividing the families, but Naira proves his innocence and her family accepts him.
Naira and Kartik are married, and later learn that Kartik’s cousin, Mansi was responsible for her mother’s death. The couple later worked together to help his sister gain a divorce from her abusive husband. Under pressure from the family, Naksh agrees to marry Naira’s sister-in-law, Keerti.
Parallel story arcs
Parallel with Akshara and Naitik’s stories, the stories of their respective siblings also form significant story arcs in the series. Past plots have been built around the lives of Naitik’s sisters Nandini and Rashmi. The series has also focused on Naitik’s step-siblings. The series also paralleled the story of Akshara-Naitik with that of Varsha-Shaurya, Akshara’s best friend and elder brother, respectively.
After several leaps, Naira and Kartik became the leads of the show. Parallel with Kartik and Naira’s stories, the series also focuses on the story of their siblings: Naksh, Gayu, Keerti and Shubham.
Currently, parallel with Kartik and Naira’s story, the series focuses on the story of Naksh and Keerti.
Game Of Love
The family consists of Kalyani Dadi, the matriarch of the family and is always there to give advice to her children and grandchildren. Dadi has two sons named Tej and Shakti. Tej is married to Jhanvi and has three children with her, Omkara, Rudra and Priyanka. Shakti is married to Pinky and has one son with her, Shivaay, the eldest grandson.
The show follows the bond between the brothers and then shifts to the bonds the brothers have with their significant others. Shivaay is a reputable businessman who does not believe in love and plans to get married to Tia Kapoor, on his mother’s insistence. Shivaay gets married to Anika, an orphan who has been adopted by a family with a physically disabled brother, Sahil. Although Shivaay and Anika do not get married under the perfect circumstances, they eventually fall in love and constantly prove to be the perfect couple and example for their younger siblings.
Omkara is originally an artist who loved the concept of love, who also becomes a businessman after he goes through a tragic time in his life.He meets Ishana, a girl who wanted to marry Omkara to attain financial stability. For that,she acts as Bela, a docile girl, in front of Omkara and Mala, a mediatist in front of Omkara’s girlfriend,Riddhima, to separate Omkara and Riddhima. Then, Ishana gets revealed to Om, by Shivaay and Rudra and Om throws her out of his life. Riddhima,then deceives Omkara,and Om breaks up with her. After his breakup with Riddhima, Omkara started to despise the idea of love. Then, he gets married to Gauri Kumari Sharma, a bubbly girl he meets in Bareilly. Initially Omkara hates Gauri and believes her to be a gold digger. Gauri brings out the artist in him once again and eventually wins his love. Gauri’s inability to properly say Hindi and English words alike are part of her charm.
Rudra is the youngest brother and practically the baby of the family. He has no ambitions or goals in life and only loves to work out and party. His initial love interest is Saumya Kapoor, a family friend of the Oberoi’s. Rudra initially hates Saumya but later after Saumya saves Rudra from Romi, a mentally stunted woman who claims herself to be a devi, Rudra develops feelings for Saumya.In a drunken state, Rudra and Saumya get married, but Rudra constantly rejects Saumya’s love and she exits the show. Then enters Bhavya Pratap Rathore, a police officer, who is undercover as a shy and simple girl and uses Rudra in one of her operations. Eventually Rudra and Bhavya fall in love, but their age difference proves to be their problem. Saumya comes back to get Rudra back, but Bhavya and Rudra get married.
Priyanka is shy, nervous and honest girl. She is Anika’s friend. Priyanka gets married to Ranveer Randhawan, an ACP officer. Ranveer initially portrayed as a negative character and try to ruin the oberois with his foster mother Kamini Khurana, but later changes good seeing Priyanka’s love and devotion.
The brother’s constant enemy happens to be the Kapoor sisters, who reveal to be Svetlana, Tia, and Saumya. Svetlana reveals that her parents were killed in an accident at one of the Oberoi’s factory and therefore the sisters seek revenge from their family. Svetlana initially is Omkara and Rudra’s father, Tej’s mistress. The entire family hates her and she is the reason for Tej and Jhanvi’s rocky marriage. When Tej and Jhanvi get back together, she tries her talents with Omkara, but does not succeed. She is eventually jailed.
Tia, who initially does not reveal herself to be Svetlana and Saumya’s sister, tries to marry Shivaay. It is later revealed that she used to date a man named Dushyant, whom she believes died because of Anika and Shivaay. She eventually turns good after Dushyant turns up alive, and not loving Shivaay.
Saumya, the last Kapoor sister, was initially introduced as a family friend, and was a good character. Even when she made her re-entry into the show, she is shown to only want Rudra’s love and willing to go to any means for him. Right after Bhavya and Rudra’s wedding, it is revealed she is the secret third sister of the Kapoor family and was used as their secret weapon. Both Svetlana and Saumya are sent to jail; while Tia is reunited with Dushyant and goes on to have a child with him.
Anika soon finds out who her parents were, Vardhan Trivedi and his wife, who also died in the Oberoi factory incident. It is also revealed that Gauri is Anika’s long-lost sister, Chutki.
Redux
The story takes a different kind of leap, where an author and public speaker, takes them back to where the story started, Anika and Shivays first meeting, and changes their life, by not having them meet there.
In this new story, Shivaay is a stoic, no-nonsense businessman who is still hurting after his parent’s death. It is revealed the incident that constantly haunts Shivaay is that Pinky killed Shakti after learning about his affair and then killed herself. Omkara is also a businessman, rather than an artist, who help Shivaay due to the lack of family members. Rudra is a supermodel who uses his fame and money as an excuse for everything he does. Priyanka is shown as Shivaay’s own younger sister this time.
Anika and Gauri live with their aunt, Sahil’s mother, who hates them both due to their mother, as she left their father for another man. Gauri knows nothing of the incident, and Anika struggles to make ends meet due to lack of job. She is constantly stressed about paying for Gauri’s college tuition, Sahil’s medications, and house rent, with no help from her aunt.
Although Shivaay and Anika meet, they are shown to have a rocky relationship due to Shivaay’s lack of trust in women. Gauri and Omkara meet and instantly hit it off. Bhavya and Rudra also meet, but it is shown that Rudra likes to use his money and fame for wrong deeds, which irks Bhavya.
Shivaay and Anika get close when the latter is hired by Shivaay’s sister Priyanka as a wedding planner. Shivaay is engaged to Tia, on the insistence of Dadi and Priyanka is engaged to Tia’s brother Daksh. Both Tia and Daksh are bankrupt and are marrying the Oberoi siblings only for money. Anika almost gets molested by Daksh and she tries to bring his true colors in front of Shivaay, but in vain. Anika also gets to know that Daksh is having a relationship with another girl Payal and is going to be a father of her child. But Shivaay does not listen to her.
On the day of Daksh and Priyanka’s marriage, Daksh runs away being blackmailed by Anika. Priyanka goes to look for him and meets with an accident and eventually leads to be in coma. Shivaay holds Anika responsible and marries her forcefully. He then denies to accept her his wife. After few incidents Shivaay realizes Daksh’s truth and Priyanka also gets up from coma, Shivaay publicly exposes Daksh and asks forgiveness from Anika. Initially, Anika does not forgive him, but later after Shivaay work hards to earn Anika’s forgiveness, Anika forgives Shivaay and befriends him. Then, Shivaay surprises Anika with his birthday surprise on Anika’s birthday. He also returns Anika’s reputation in society and gives her divorce papers as her birthday present.
Waiting For Love
The story opens with Kamini Mathur (Sanjeeda Sheikh), a talented actress who is at the peak of her career. For the world, she is a Bollywood diva but in her personal life she is a simple girl. Born to an IAS officer father and artist mother, Kamini has her middle-class values firmly in place. Hard working but uncompromising towards her values and talent, she struggles to find true love amidst men who are lured only by her fame and beauty. Her search ends when Madhav enters her life.
Maharaja Madhav Singh is a righteous, down to earth, simple man. He is an ideal king and son who fulfills his duties well. As the Maharaja of Rajgarh, Madhav is constantly surrounded by luxuries but he appreciates the small things in life. He has a penchant for art and is a romantic by heart who is looking for a soulmate who would love him for his values and not for his royal status.
Kamini and Madhav soon fall passionately in love but it is soon revealed that Madhav is already married to Rani Vijayalakshmi and has a three-year old daughter named Madhavi. At the same time, a broken Kamini finds out that she’s pregnant with his child. As Kamini decides to keep the child, her father suggests that the family move to Canada for some time so Kamini can give birth to the child who will be introduced as her sibling to the world.
20 years later
20 years later, Kamini lives in her old house in Mumbai with her now widowed mother, and her daughter Mohini (Preetika Rao) who thinks Kamini is her older sister. The family is living hand to mouth and Kamini has retired completely from public life. Mohini decides to place an ad for a tenant to make ends meet. Ayaan (Mohit Sehgal) comes to live with the family. The story will see a love triangle between half-sisters Mohini and Madhavi (Heena Parmar) with Ayaan.
