Paying Guest (Old Doordarshan TV Show)
Paying Guest is a story of an old couple who planned to keep paying guests at their house to alleviate their loneliness. It was much appreciated show in 80s times. Paying Guest was telecasted in the year 1985 on national network Doordarshan. Rajshri Production, well known for family oriented drama and movies, produced this bone-tickling comedy show. The drama was revolved around different stories of different people who have come to their place as paying guests. It was a finite show with 26 episodes in total. The veteran actor Subbiraj played the lead role of the show. Directed by Abhinav Pathak and Sameer Ganguly, Paying Guest also had many stars in different characters.
| Artists | Characters |
| Subbiraj | Krishnakant Trivedi |
| Urmila Bhatt | Sharda |
| Dinesh Hingoo | Somnath |
The creators of the show
Rajshri Production is quite a common name in Hindi film and television industry. The company belongs to Shree Tarachand Barjatya who was also the founder of the company. Rajshri company was started its journey in the year 1962 with producing Hindi films. After a few years of time Sooraj Barjatya, Tarachand’s grandson started directing films under the same production house. Paying Guest was one of the many amazing shows produced by the company. Tarachand Barjatya then the leading producer took up the project as the concept was unique and fun-filled.
The director duo Abhinav Pathak and Sameer Ganguly used to direct television shows and telefilms at that point of time. In the year 1964, a film was released under this production house namely Dosti that brought the company into fame. The film earned 6 filmfare awards with a national award.
Story Line
| Name of the show | Paying Guest |
| Director | Abhinav Pathak, Sameer Ganguly |
| Writer | Diljit Singh, Jimmy Baria |
| Story | Diljit Singh, Jimmy Baria |
| Dialogue | Ranbir Pushp |
| Producer | Tarachand Barjatya |
| Company | Rajshri Production |
| Telecasted Network | Doordarshan |
| Telecasted in | 1985 |
| Seasons | 1 |
| Episodes | 26 |
| Official Website | http://www.rajshri.com/tv/paying-guest/ |
The story of the drama was about an old couple played by Subbiraj and Urmila Bhatt. The couple had their children settled down in abroad and they were left in a big house all alone. Soon they started feeling that they are getting older and lonelier. To alleviate this loneliness, the couple planned to keep some paying guests in their empty house. They started calling people who were in need of homes.
In each episode there were new sets of paying guests that had come to their place and started staying with them. During their stay with the paying guests the couple started facing different problems and issues. The basic of the drama is to show how we face difficulties while staying with strangers under one roof. There were 26 episodes in total in which different stories of different people were shown.
Some facts about the show / makers
- Raj Kumar Barjatya, son of Tarachand Barjatya and father of Sooraj Barjatya was one of the associate producers of the show.
- Madhuri Dixit, Bollywood’s number one beauty, was appeared in one of the episodes of the show.
- Subbiraj was seen in many Hindi movies and was married to a Bollywood actress Kumari Naaz.
Relevance Today
Paying Guest is one such show that showed the daily life problems a middle class family face. The drama wasn’t something special to talk about yet it had so many little things that we see in our day to day life even today. The show started with a couple who were living alone a big house as their children were settled abroad. Their loneliness forced them to keep paying guests. The unavoidable, yet big issue was shown in the drama where lonely parents searching for company. We often think about our career and life to survive, but we forget that a couple who have sacrificed all the golden days of their life after us need nothing but company. They are heading towards the end of their lives and all they need is to enjoy their last few days with a complete family. Unfortunately most of us don’t think of this.
A middle class family, on the other, has to face a lot of rifts in several places. Be it a price issue, living issue or issues related to family, a middle class family has to handle so many things. The drama showed these tiny issues that people face every day. The families that had come as paying guests had several issues related to relationships and others.
If we take a deep look in the concept of the show, it was a comedy and entertaining show. When we come across different people in our life we gather more of an experience than anything else. Some are good, some are bad, some are pathetic and some stay with us forever but each time we gather new experience in life. So the relevance of the show is immense today.
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