Sharad Malhotra

He used to be a young man with the mental age of an eight-year-old. Then he regained his mental faculties but partially lost his memory. And now he is dead.

Audiences last week were shocked to see both Sagar and Vidya, lead actors of Banoo Main Teri Dulhann, the serial with the highest TRP rating on Zee TV, being murdered. But there is no bidding adieu to Sharad Malhotra, the Calcutta boy who played Sagar with elan, or his love interest Divyanka.

“I will be back on the show as Amar Upadhyay, a bindaas tourist guide of Varanasi,” assures Sharad. The secret is that the serial is going for a 20-year leap (not again!) and the two are set to be reincarnated!

“Many are asking why we are going for such a drastic change when the show is doing so well. But we felt that Sagar-Vidya’s story was over and we wanted to present a fresh love story. The reincarnation theme allowed us to do that,” Pearl Shahi, creative programming head of Zee TV, tells t2.

Rebirth seems to be in fashion. On the big screen, the superhit Om Shanti Om has paved the path for yet another reincarnation saga Karzzzz. The entire cast of STAR Plus’s Kumkum is also reportedly set for a reincarnation. STAR’s earlier experiment with reincarnation Pyaar ke Do Naam: Ek Raadha Ek Shyaam had flopped. But Zee TV is not worried about the theme becoming over-used. “It is the presentation that matters,” Shahi says. And Sharad is raring to have a go at a new character. “I will take revenge for Sagar’s death. Bohut bhaga bhaga ke mara mujhe,” he says of the chase in the jungles after which he was shot dead.