The crew during their shoot in north Bengal. A Telegraph picture

A Bengali mega-serial that takes you from the golden brown sands of Rajasthan to the lush green forest of the Dooars to the pure white snows of Yumthang.

Director Kaushik Ganguly has his reasons for using outdoor locales in his big-budget venture Chorabali, a daily soap on Zee Bangla on the lines of the larger-than-life productions of the Ekta Kapoor stable.

“This is the first TV serial in Bengali, and in Hindi, to use extensive outdoor shoots,” Ganguly, who shot to fame with his critically-acclaimed Sunya E Buke last year, told The Telegraph. “A number of Hindi soaps which are a big hit all over India, including Bengal, confine viewers within the four-walls. We want to give viewers breathing space.”

Cameraman Chitravanu has already shot episodes in Rajasthan and will also shoot in the Sunderbans.

The script has been written with outdoor scenes in mind. “It is the story of two brothers,” said the director. “While the younger one goes off to Rajasthan, the elder one, a doctor, is framed in a criminal conspiracy by his colleagues and charged with murder. During his honeymoon in Lataguri in the Dooars, he gets to know that an arrest warrant has been issued in his name. Instead of returning home, he flees from place to place to evade the law. Those scenes will be shot in Suntalkhola (near Chalsa), Rishap (near Kalimpong) and Yumthang in North Sikkim.”

Choosing lesser-known locales was a conscious choice, the director said. “In Rajasthan, too, we shot in a very low-profile border village called Khejargaon,” he said. “Telling a story in over-exploited locales does not lend the air of freshness that I want.”

Ganguly said the serial, expected to run for two-and-half years, has had “fabulous” response so far.

Produced by Binayak Sarkar, the cast includes Sabhyasachi Chakraborty, Biplab Dasgupta, Parambrata, Monami Ghosh, Pijush Ganguly, Mrinal Mukherjee and Samanta Das, with the director’s wife Churni Ganguly in the lead.

Apart from the serial, the director is currently working on his next feature film Rangmilanti. “While making serious films (like Sunya E Buke) is my passion, commercial feel-good productions (like Chorabali) are my livelihood,” Ganguly explained.