Dishayen

'Dishayen is an Indian serial, shot by the TV company Time Magnetics (India) Ltd in 2001–2003.

Its first night show started on the channel DD-Doordarshan’s National Network and revived the genre of soap-operas. The originality of the TV serial Dishayen was in the idea of double roles where one actress plays twins.

The serial was shown several times by the channels "Channel 7-9", "Ajman TV". The serial was bought by China, Hungary and reached the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan).

Cast

Nikita (played by Purbi Joshi - Season 1, Pooja Ghai - Season 2) is colonel Sharma’s daughter who dreams to become a Bollywood star and arriving in Mumbai reaches her goal, sacrificing family happiness.

Neha (played by Purbi Joshi - Season 1, Pooja Ghai - Season 2 ) is the second twin daughter of colonel Sharma and Shila. She helps Nikita to realize her dream and become the film star substituting her at the wedding with Rajive. Thus, her dream to have her own family comes true.

Rajive (played by Karan Oberoi) is Samir’s stepbrother. He is weak-willed and indecisive in his actions and even in love. He can easily betray his ideals, but at the same time he is a loving son. He blames Samir’s criminal way of life, though he is worried for his destiny.

Sameer (played by Sudhanshu Pandey) is a masterful man of unrestrained nature who is in war with the law and at the same time he is able to love passionately and faithfully. He was ready for any crazy actions for Nikita: he could spoil his relations with his mother and even to sacrifice his life.

Short content of the first season of Dishayen

The serial narrates about two twin sisters Neha and Nikita (Purbi Joshi). Nikita dreams about the career of star in Bollywood, Neha is the simpler one. It so happened that the father of the twins (Rajiv Verma) wanted that his daughter Nikita, who dreams to be an actress, married handsome Rajive (Karan Oberoi). Nikita in desperation tells her twin sister that she will commit suicide if Neha does not agree to substitution and marries Rajive. Nikita tried to persuade Neha saying that it was her wish to lead silent and calm family life.

At first conjugal night, just after ceremony, Neha says to her husband that she is not Nikita. Rajive answers that he knows of that substitution because Nikita told him about it and he agreed because he wanted a wife as Neha. At sisters’ home their aunt (Shagufta Ali) finds the truth. Almost immediately the sisters’ aunt informs the bridegroom’s mother Mrs. Gayatri (Vinita Mallik) about the substitution. The angry mother-in-law makes the false daughter-in-law leave her house.

Slowly, however, Neha makes her way into her in-laws hearts by her behaviour. The only exception is Sameer (Sudhanshu Pandey), her brother-in-law. Sameer is the dark horse of the family. He is known as Baba in underworld, unknown to his own family. Unknown to everybody, he has also developed soft corner for Nikita. Nikita, on the other hand, gets a bigger punishment than deserved for her behaviour. A producer (Uday Tikekar) inebriates her and takes semi-nude pictures of her. He starts blackmailing her.

Nikita runs back to her sister and meets her secretly. She tells her sister everything. The twins decide to do something, but before that they suffer an accident. Nikita survives, but Neha goes missing. The in-laws of Neha think that Nikita has died, while Nikita realizes that if she wants to escape, she has to impersonate Neha. Her plan works and she is brought back to the house.

Short content of the second season of Dishayen

Nikita is well adjusted to the world of Neha's in-laws. She also realizes that she made a big mistake by refusing to marry Rajive. Meanwhile, Sameer, along with Neha's cousin try to make Nikita's life hell, not knowing the truth. Nikita slowly transforms to the dutiful wife Neha was and develops feelings for Rajive.

Unknown to her, Neha has survived the accident. Neha's memories are lost, but as everything comes back, Neha heads back to her in-laws. She is kept unaware of the truth by Rajive and Nikita. Meanwhile, Sameer kills Neha's and Nikita's cousin over a scuffle, and Rajive gets framed.

The parents of the twins are distraught by the turn of events, unaware of the fact that another tragedy is coming from an unexpected place. Enter Vishal (Narendra Jha), a convict who is the illegitimate child of the twin's father. Vishal was brought single-handedly by his now dead mother. His only objective is to make his father pay for his sin.

As Vishal's identity is known, the mother of the twins spurns her husband. The twins, however, accept their brother. Soon, however, Neha and Nikita's world blows apart when Neha learns the truth. Neha is even more shocked to learn that Nikita is carrying Rajive's baby. This is particularly disturbing, as Neha herself is pregnant from Rajive. Neha confronts Rajive and asks him to divorce Nikita.

Meanwhile, Vishal also enemizes Sameer. The enmity escalates, till Sameer too learns the truth of the twin's pregnancy. This makes him distraught, as he realizes that he had a soft spot for Nikita. In a freak accident, Nikita loses her child. She sees that divorce from Rajive is imminent, which makes her doubly sad.

Strangely, her abortion brings her parents together and they accept Vishal as their son. Sameer, whose ego and pride are damaged beyond repair, mends fences with Vishal and turns himself up to police for investigation of his crimes. Neha, meanwhile learns that Rajive never served divorce papers to Nikita. She thinks that Rajive's fidelity is wavering.

Rajive, on the other hand, is disturbed because he is equally answerable to both the sisters. When Rajive fails to serve Nikita the divorce papers, Neha gets angered and threatens to divorce him. Sameer sides Neha and they both leave the house. However, accident plays its role yet again. Sameer and Neha suffer a brutal accident.

All the people go to meet them, but Sameer dies after asking apologies for all things done by him. When Nikita and Rajive go to see Neha, she has delivered twins. She handles the twins to Sameer and Nikita and dies. This also signifies the end of the story, as all the characters got what destiny had in store for them.