RISHTAA: An Arranged Love (IPKKND AU) **ON HIATUS**

Preface

Rishtaa: An Arranged Love came about because I wanted to test a theory I had. Khushi and Arnav's first meeting coloured their interactions for months. They began on the wrong foot and, for a long time, they couldn't push past that. So I wondered how these characters might get along if we removed the disaster that was their first meeting, if we allowed them a gentler beginning, but kept almost everything else the same.

Does their pride still get in the way? Do their prejudices? How do they speak to one another? How do they reconcile the differences in status and money? What about their almost-instant and overpowering attraction and lust?

An arranged marriage scenario makes them as equal as they can possibly be: the differences in wealth and status persist but this is no longer the story of a girl who crashed a fashion show and a man who thought she was a corporate spy. It's the story of two people who meet because their families want it; who, despite his money and her idealism, are in the same situation.

In trying to make Khushi and Arnav as equal as possible, I realised that Khushi couldn't be the 18-year-old, straight-out-of-school girl Arnav met at the mazhar. So she's 22 and in her last year of college here. I needed Khushi to have seen more of the world, to understand more of human nature, than she did when we met her in the serial.

The final major change is the absence of Shyam. Initially, I wanted to see how Arshi dealt with Shyam in this new scenario, but once I started writing it, I realised I didn't have the heart.