Ek Hasina Thi (TV series)
Ek Hasina Thi is a Crime thriller television series created by Cinevistaas Limited for the channel Star Plus from 14 April 2014 to 20 December 2014. Produced by Prem Krishen, Ek Hasina Thi is loosely based on the American series Revenge. The series has Sanjeeda Sheikh and Vatsal Sheth as leads, and, Simone Singh and Ayub Khan in supportive roles. The show is set in Kolkata, but is filmed in Mumbai. The series was earlier titled Daag. The show was acclaimed by critics and viewer and it was one of the most successful show of Star Plus at that time.Simone Singh's performance has been lauded.
Plot
Durga Thakur, a rich, educated and confident woman is known to be heavenly beautiful and drop dead gorgeous. She is a fashionista with incredible fashion sense and encounters a Goenka family whose youngest son Shaurya is a good-looking, rich spoilt brat.Shaurya is attracted to Durga which later turns into much more when his friends challenge him. He wants to win Durga for a bet he made with his friends. Shaurya's clever parents Sakshi and Rajnath always stand by his side no matter what he does.
Shaurya and Durga start spending most time together as they go on dates all, Sakshi slowly notices Durga's influence on Shaurya and how subconsciously he is getting more into her influence. Shaurya's reputation gets tainted and she starts to doubt Durga's hand on it.
Indeed, it is revealed that Durga is actually Nitya Mitra, who wants to avenge her sister, Payal Mitra, a mental patient whom Shaurya and his friends raped two years ago, she wanted to get justice for Payal, but Sakshi and Rajnath bribed all the witnesses so Nitya lost the case. This had made Payal go mad and her parents commit suicide.
However, Nitya still did not give up and threatened Goenkas that she will make them pay for what they did. The Goenkas got scared and tried to kill Nitya in an accident in which she lost her face, and needed to immediately be cured with the help of a surgery that would change her face. Dr. Dayal Thakur had found her and gave her the face of his daughter Durga, who was dead.
Now Nitya is back as Durga and wants to get revenge on the Goenka family, she starts to destroy everyone who had made her suffer. However, her problems increase when Shaurya's elder cousin Dev returns from America, who was Nitya's best friend and secretly loved her.
Dev wants to find out about Nitya's whereabouts and what happened to her while he had gone, this tenses Nitya as she does not want her real identity to come out, Nitya realises Dev loves her and she loves him too. She pretends to love Shaurya and decides to marry him to enter in the Goenka house and destroy them.
As Shaurya does not really love Nitya but just wants to win the bet, he takes her on a trip but she had already planned what to do, she made her spy, Akash, hired some goons who terribly attack Shaurya, leaving him paralysed under the waist, Sakshi doubts Durga and manipulate Shourya through his friend, Karan not to marry Durga, on the day of wedding, Shaurya rejects Durga. In order to pave Durga's path in Goenka house, Dayal coarce Deve to marry her telling Dev that he would bring Nitya to Dev.
Rajnath impersonates Akram "Akash" Khan, Sakshi's step-son, to get the video tape which reveals that he shot his brother Arnav through which Sakshi blackmailed Rajnath to marry her, killing her husband, Rehmat Khan who was the only witness of the incident, to clear all the obstacles. Sakshi learns that Rajnath and her friend, Raima Maheshwari have an affair.
Sakshi confronts and shoots Raima in which she lapses into a coma, Dev is framed for this, because of Raima testifying against her in the court, she bribes a nurse to change her medicines worsening her health. Durga tries to prove Dev innocent.
Eventually Dev gets acquitted from the case and finds out about Durga's real identity but hides this from her until she tells to him herself. Shaurya learns that Dayal was involved in his paralysis attack and shoots him, provoking Durga to get revenge for Dayal's death and she tries to create rift between Goenka family, but is unsuccessful.
Sakshi wants to kidnap Payal to reach Nitya, Rishi kidnaps her, when Durga comes to know, she tells Dev and Akram about this. Akram gets Payal but Dev reaches the wrong place where Shaurya tries to kill him. Nitya comes in between but is not harmed as bullet only touched her. Hospitalised, Dev tells her that he knows that she is Nitya and professes his love for her.
Adamant to get revenge on Shaurya, Sakshi and Rajnath, Durga is told by doctor about her clot on forehead, and she might be saved after operation and told doctor not to tell to anyone about this that she has only 3–4 days left. Sakshi fakes Shaurya's death in an accident which is executed successfully. Shaurya tracks down Payal, and attacks Akash and Rishi. They save their lives.
Having strong evidence against the Goenka family, Durga made them arrested, the judge convicts Shaurya and Karan, Nitya gets unconscious and Dev takes her to the hospital, her operation is successful, she accepts Dev and express her love for him, they reunite with Payal, Kangana Suchitra and Akash. At the end Durga got a phone call which upon receiving; she hears Shourya's whistle; hinting that Shaurya is out of prison or was never in prison. The show ends on a cliffhanger.
Cast and characters
- Sanjeeda Sheikh portrays as Durga Dev Goenka / Nitya Mitra, Dev's wife, Payal's elder sister. The real Durga is in fact dead, Nitya Mitra had a facial plastic surgery under the supervision of Dr. Thakur Shaurya's ex-fiancée, Shekar Mehra's classmate and working with Akash aka Akram to destroy Goenkas as she wants revenge them for ruining life of her sister and family.
- Vatsal Sheth portrays Shaurya Goenka, the main male lead. A rich goodlooking, womanizing heir of the Goenka family. Being under the influence of his family, he can get anything he want and is not used to hear the word "no". He is Payal's rapist, Durga's ex-fiancée and Dev's sworn enemy cousin
- Simone Singh portrays Sakshi Goenka, the main female antagonist who is beautiful, powerful and has a dynamic personality. Wife of Rajnath and Ex-second wife of Akram's father Rehmat Khan. She enjoys being the center of attention in Kolkata. She can go to any length to protect her two children - Shaurya and Kangana - are her only weakness.
- Ayub Khan portrays Rajnath Goenka, the male antagonist who is extremely ambitious and ruthless man who is amongst the elite in Kolkata business and social circles. Second husband of Sakshi. To maintain his social status, he can go to any length.
- Bhuvnesh Mann portrays Dev Goenka, Durga's husband, cousin of Shaurya, best friend of Nitya. He comes back from US to find out what happened 2 years back regarding his fathers disappearance and Durgas real identity. He ends up in false alibi by Rajnath and testified that he will avenge his fathers death and arrest the evil Goenkas for ruining his life. He and Shaurya are cousins but sworn enemies due to Durga coming between them and Shaurya’s attempt to finish him went in vein because of her discovery of true found love for Dev.
- Aditi Sajwan portrays Nitya Mitra, the best friend of Dev, Payal's Elder Sister.
- Kishwer Merchant portrays Raima Maheshwari, the best friend of Sakshi who has an extramarital relationship with her husband, Rajnath. She ends up dead by Sakshi through evidence of tape footage to expose Rajnath by his business rival.
- Jyoti Gauba portrays Suchitra Goenka, the mother of Dev who is a kind-hearted woman and believes in social work and Durga's mother-in-law.
- Poonam Preet portrays Kangana Rajnath Goenka, the only daughter of Goenka family. The character is inspired from the Indian actress Kangana Ranaut's role in the 2014 comedy-drama Queen.
- Mihir Mishra portrays Akram Rehmat Khan / Akash Roy, the step-son of Sakshi whose father Rehmat Khan was killed by her. He returns as Akash Roy to seek revenge on Sakshi and is accompanied by Durga in his revenge.
- Teena Chopra portrays Payal Mitra /Payal Thakur, Nitya's younger Sister who was raped by Shaurya and his friends due to a bet that Shaurya lost and intoxicated alcohol abuse that Shaurya had when he went to have during rave parties.
- Vicky Arora portrays Karan Basu Shaurya’s Real partner in crime and best friend who pretended to love his sister Kangana so he could keep the secret of his crime hidden from the public due his father being a politician with ties to Goenkas he could use to take over the empire. Karan ends up behind bars because he and Shaurya bets were the main cause of the vileness that started the rape crime.
- Vikram Singh Chauhan portrays Rishi who was once Shaurya’s friend but more dangerous to Shaurya than his friends because he knew the truth but due to Shauryas bossy attitude and mistreatment Rishi decides to expose him in court by allying with Durga Dev and Payal who he has sworn to protect and has a admiration for her outstanding bravery
- Aliraza Namdar portrays Girish Basu Shaurya’s friend but ended up dead by betrayal
- Bhupinder Singh portrays Dr. Dayal Thakur, real Durga's father, After surgery Durga and Payal's adoptive father and Dev's father-in-law.
- Amit Behl portrays Navin Mathur, the loyal man of Goenka family who is accused of betrayal and is jailed than gives evidence to Dev because he is the key to Goenkas defeat because the truth is in their reach.
- Aamir Ali portrays Dr. Neil Bhattacharya. Ali made a special appearance; he portrayed Neil who has a false engagement with Durga.
- Vin Rana portrays Karan Seth Shaurya kills him by hiring a henchmen because he was not worthy as a friend
- Shalmalee Desai portrays Sagarika Ganguly, a girl whose mother is the victim of spousal abuse.
Casting
Adaptations
It was dubbed into various languages: into Tamil and Telugu as "Durga", into Malayalam as "Oru shishirathinte ormakku" and into Arabic as "Laheeb Al-Huqd / لهيب الحقد" on MBC Bollywood. It was also dubbed into Sinhalese as "Sulanga Wage Awidin". on Hiru TV.Awards
;Indian Telly Awards 2014- Best Actress in a Negative Role - Simone Singh
- Best Series - Drama - Ek Hasina Thi
- Best Actor in a Negative Role - Ayub Khan
- Best Actress in a Negative Role - Simone Singh
- Gr8! Performer of the Year - Sanjeeda Sheikh
- Nominated for Best Actor - Vatsal Sheth
Footnotes