Indeed saas bahu drama still sells on TV. Not all of them work though. Many saas bahu soaps of late have fetched poor TRPs and had to be taken off air in a jiffy. Star Plus’ Saath Nibhana Saathiya (Rashmi Sharma Productions) however crossed 800 episodes today (26 April 2013). Gautam Hegde, writer of the show updated his Facebook status, “Eight Hundred episodes of Saath Nibhana Saathiya! We enter its fourth year in the next ten days! Go baby!! Congrats to the entire team that is and has been associated with the show. Touchwood! :-) (sic).” The entire cast and crew partied on the sets and cut a cake together today. Devoleena Bhattacharjee who plays Gopi Bahu said, “My colleagues have made me feel so at home, it is difficult for me to believe that I joined the show later. It seems that I have been with it from the very beginning. It was indeed a challenge to step into Gopi Bahu’s shoes; the audience generally has difficulty in accepting a new face especially for a lead role. Thankfully, things have worked out quite well for me. I must say that Giaa Manek also played Gopi Bahu well.” Mohammad Nazim who plays Ahem Modi is very proud to be a part of the project. He told us, “I am very excited with this milestone. Our show deserves to cross 8000 episodes. Nobody thought that a show could rock at 7pm. Our show has proved otherwise and has gone on to create a new prime time band. When I meet my fans they address me as ‘the angry young man’ and ‘Kokila’s son’. They say that my reel wife Gopi is very sweet and innocent.” Rucha Hasabnis who plays Rashi is also elated. “It’s an amazingly lovely feeling that our show has been so successful. This is my first Hindi show which has brought me great popularity. I am blessed to have such a beautiful team. We share joys and tears together. This team is like my second family.” Rupal Patel who plays mother-in-law Kokila says that she is ‘super happy’. Her character will surely go down in the history of Indian television as one of the most memorable mother-in-law. What is her take on that? She gushes, “I am so happy and honoured to play an ideal character who has stood by her daughter all the time. She is a very fair and just mother-in-law.” Ved Raj, the writer of the show said, “Eight hundred is just a number but am happy that it gives me an opportunity to express my happiness over the team effort of the Saath Nibhana Saathiya creative unit which appreciatively has not changed since the start of the show. That is quite a feat. We hope we can maintain the freshness and uniqueness of the show for times to come.” Way to go, team Saath Nibhana Saathiya!!!