Producer Yash Patnaik believes that IMM is arguably the most successful ‘daily thriller franchise’ on the telly!

Producer couple Yash and Mamta Patnaik with their production house Beyond Dreams Entertainment have given the industry some fabulous actors like Karan Tacker, Mohit Raina, Harshita Gaur and Erica Fernandes, to name a few, and entertaining shows like “Ek Veer Ki Ardaas… Veera”, “Sadda Haq”, “Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi”, among others. Their current show “Ishq Mein Marjawan 2”, the second show in the franchise, is keeping the audience on the edge of their seat with its gripping storyline, and Yash shared, “We aimed to create a new story under the franchise, yet without carrying forward any of the characters (actors) or the previous story.”

“Our focus on bringing in new talent will continue like we have been doing all these years. So far we have introduced hundreds of actors, out of which 30-35 lead faces. IMM2 is our 35th project.” The couple have produced many popular and critically acclaimed television series, web series, documentaries, short films and feature films.

Ishq Mein Marjawan (IMM) is arguably the most successful ‘daily thriller franchise’ on the telly. Its first season entertained viewers for about 500 episodes and has been released across OTT platforms and television channels globally. Second season is about to complete 200 episodes this week. Prior to ‘Ishq Mein Marjawan’ no daily thriller had a 500 episode run, ‘Kaahin Kissii Roz’ being the only exception which ran for 714 episodes. The second season of the IMM features Helly Shah, Rrahul Sudhir, and Vishal Vashishtha in lead roles. The producer accepted that though the second season was a challenge, he is happy that their risk has paid off and the show is entertaining both masses as well as classes.

“We are happy to create a franchise out of a show which was supposed to end in 100 episodes. I must say, we took a lot of creative risk with the story, characters and the narrative. I am glad it worked. I feel while creating characters/stories a creator should never be worried about the risk, because if you try to play safe content will never evolve, and you will never be able to set a mark” he said.

“‘Ishq Mein Marjawan 2’ was a challenge because unlike dramas which can run for years, thrillers tend to run out of steam soon. There are not many daily thrillers that have lasted for more than 100-200 episodes. Hence it’s satisfying to see our IP completing 700 episodes, which in itself is a landmark in this category” he added.

Crediting his wife Mamta for spearheading the franchise, he said, “Since the show is very pacy, the challenge was of running out of stories because a thriller needs to hold the intrigue factor. Mamta has been the brain behind the franchise. She created her narrative, and storytelling with ‘Ishq Mein Marjawan’ 1 and 2”.

“After ‘Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi’, we were expected to follow the success with similar shows, but we came up with a drastically different IP with ‘Ishq Mein Marjawan.’ We are thankful to Colors for believing in IMM and supporting us with this project. We are happy that the audience accepted Ishq Main Marjawan and made it a success,” Yash concluded.