Drashti Dhami & Shaleen Malhotra's show to be shot in Austria..

Ekta Kapoor is coming up with a show for Star Plus, which is inspired from a novel. Shaleen Malhotra, who catapulted to fame as Arjun in the cop drama 'Arjun' & was last seen as the host on 'Code Red Talash' has been roped in to play the male lead. Whereas, Drashti Dhami, who was last seen in Zee TV's 'Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani' is zeroed to play Shaleen's wife in the show.

A certain section of the media had reported that the show is inspired from Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Pardes' & Shaleen's role is similar to Khan's character in the film. However, our sources closely associated with the production house denied this and revealed, "The show is loosely based on Manju Kapur's fourth novel 'The Immigrant'. It's a story about two NRI's Ananda & Nina, played by Shaleen & Drashti. They will start shooting for the show in September."

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Our source further added, "As the novel is a Canada based story, so the channel has decided to shoot the initial few episodes abroad. The cast & crew will head to Austria and start shooting in the first week of September. As of now, the channel has planned to shoot there for about 4 weeks."

For those uninitiated, Ekta Kapoor's popular show Yeh Hai Mohabbatein is also based on Manju Kapur's novel 'Custody'.

Here is the short summary of  'The Immigrant' :

Ananda is a dentist, who is settled abroad. His parents were looking for a suitable bride, but unfortunately they died in rickshaw accident, after which he lost all interest in ideas of marriage and happiness. Nina, a teacher by profession. She accepts sexual experience extended by a philandering professor Rahul, 15 years older than her. She devoted herself physically & emotionally to Rahul, but was left heartbroken.

Later Nina and Ananda had arranged marriage, promoted by Ananda’s sister and Nina’s mother. Consummation night proved to be a thunderclap for Nina, she came to know that Ananda suffers from premature ejaculation, which left a bad impression on her.

Ananda focused on carnal love & seemed to be giving pleasure to himself rather than caring for his wife and physically dissatisfied Nina involuntarily started comparing him with her previous lover Rahul.

Ananda perceived Nina wrongly thinking that worldly possessions and comforts are the bases of true relationship. Nina was a love seeker is shattered because Ananda showed his love only in hot moments

The sexual frustration reached fever pitch with the passage of time. Nina wants presence of a baby in her life, that's why she wants to have sex to get an egg fertilized in her. She openly asked Ananda whether anything was wrong with his sex capabilities & shared that she was frustrated only because of Ananda's impotency.

Eventually Ananda decides to get his problem cured in California. But he kept this visit a secret. Nina did not sound pleased, when he came home told it to her. Ananda had a sex with better performance, which Nina always pined for from her husband, still she is not satisfied because Ananda lied to her.

When Ananda felt he had recovered, after getting his sperm test with positive results, Nina’s passions cooled down. Frustrated Ananda found a new and fresh substitute in his new receptionist, Mandy.

While Nina started focusing in Ph.D. Programme and Ananda focused on consent and money.

Nina later involved in an extra-marital relationship with Anton. She felt liberated after having sex with him. She liked this physical relationship, also Anton made it clear that he did mean anything serious about their relationship; just a healthy give and take.

Nina and Ananda, both felt guilty of adultery, they continued to enjoy an extramarital relationship, betray each other.

-K Himaanshu Shuklaa..