‘Yule Love Stories’ — Zee TV

‘Yule Love Stories’
Later known as Love Stories.
Year: Anytime between 1994 to 1998. (Zee5 has listed the dates and years of the series ranging from 1993 to 1994. The years are incorrect. This show is definitely not from the first season of Zee TV.)
Total Episodes: 53.
Runtime: Approximately 22–23 minutes (30 minutes on TV with ad breaks).

Deepika Amin in a still from episode 12.
© Zee Entertainment

Sometime in the mid-nineties a feel-good, mellifluous tune introduced a purely romantic anthology series Yule Love Stories. Some stories were good, some were mediocre; some had happy endings, while a few ended on a heart-breaking note; some had feel-good youthfulness, while others had a sense of yearning and melancholy. Most importantly, there was dignity in those characters. The name Yule came from the sponsor Yule Tea group. After disassociation from the sponsor, the show was re-named to Love Stories, which is not a search-friendly title. Most stories finished in one episode while some went on for two parts. It also featured stories from directors like Anubhav Sinha and Ashutosh Gowariker who would go on to become famous film directors in future. Ashutosh Gowariker’s episode 49 and 50 ‘Vapasi’, written and enacted by himself, was the provenance of his 2004 film Swades starring Shahrukh Khan and Gayatri Joshi. There are two different stories called ‘Vapasi’, the first is in episodes 30 and 31 directed by Anubhav Sinha, while the second is Ashutosh Gowariker’s.

It was a precursor to the popular show Rishtey. They were practically same shows. The only differences were that the latter had one-hour episodes which allowed for better plot and character development; the stories in Rishtey dealt with various relationships, while Yule Love Stories was strictly grounded to romantic stories.

My favourite episodes are ‘Dhadkan’ and ‘Doc Subbu’. The former is a dreamy and fairytale-type story. The jazz background score is reminiscent of Kenny G is perfect. Whereas the latter is a light-hearted and charmingly uncomplicated romantic story which would have done better in the one-hour format.

© Zee Entertainment

Title Song: Only lyrics in the song were Yule love stories sung by a female singer whose name is so far unavailable. The tune was also a precursor to the tune of Rishtey.

Availability: The series is uploaded on Zee5 and Zee TV’s YouTube channel. I would recommend watching it on Zee5 to hear the title song, which is shamefully cut from the YouTube channel. A few of the available episodes have their endings truncated both on Zee5 and YouTube.

Episode and Cast list: I have compiled a list of episode names, cast and crew. Some episodes are missing from Zee’s library and there’s no data available on them so far. It’s difficult to say if the missing portions and episodes still exist. Among the available episodes, a few have their titles missing (due to Zee’s unethical editing); therefore, I have given them temporary titles in brackets for reference. The list is a work in progress. I will update the list as I get more data.

Yule Love Stories
No.	Episode Name	Actors	Credits
1	Pehla Pyar	Rajit Kapoor, Renuka Shahane, Asawari Joshi, Sulabha Deshpande	Writer: Brij Katyal Producer: Radha Seth Director: Ramesh Gupta
2	Maut Ke Rahi	Pavan Malhotra, Deepika Deshpande Amin
3		Tushar Dalvi, Renuka Shahane	(The episode is unavailable. The exact number and title are unknown.)
4
5	The Note	Renuka Shahane, Mahesh Thakur	Writer: Brij Katyal Producer: Radha Seth Director: Ramesh Gupta
6	The Anniversary	Anju Mahendru,  Parixit Sahni, Kalpana Iyer
7	Toofan Se Pehle	Mahesh Thakur, Winnie Paranjpye
8–9	Mehendi	Ananya Khare, Jatin Sial, Sudhir Dalvi
10
11	(Dosti)	Pavan Malhotra, Renuka Shahane
12	(Will)	Deepika Deshpande Amin
13	Asha	Pavan Malhotra, Winnie Paranjpye	Writer: Brij Katyal Producer: Radha Seth Director: Ramesh Gupta
14	Memories	Tom Alter, Asawari Joshi
15
16
17		Vaquar Shaikh	(The episode is unavailable. The exact number and title are unknown.)
18–19	Dhadkan	Natasha Singh	Odyssey Video Communications Ltd.
20	Faasle	Roshini Achreja, Vinay Jain, Smita Jaykar
21	(Flashback)	Kartika Rane, Rakesh Thareja, Rituraj Singh
22	Chaal	Pooja Madan, Rakhee Tandon
23
24–25	Nazdeekiyan	Sanjeev Seth, Ashwin Kaushal
26	Jazbaat	Rituraj Singh, Ardhendu Bose, Tarakesh Chauhan, Kanika Shivpuri	Odyssey Video Communications Ltd.
27	Uska Sach	Milind Gunaji, Vineet Kumar	Writer: Kamlesh Pandey Producer & Director: Anubhav Sinha
28–29	Parvaz	Sadiya Siddiqui, Seema Pahwa, Nirmal Pandey, Jitendra Shastri
30–31	Vapasi	Utkarsha Naik, Shishir Sharma
32
33
34
35
36
37
38–39	Love... just happens	Aly Khan, Rakhee Tandon, Bhairavi Raichura	Screenplay: Priya Singh Paul
40	(Ek Raat)	Pooja Madan, R. Madhavan	Director: Vivek Behl
41–42	Aakanksha	Sachin Khedekar, Iravati Harshe	Odyssey Video Communications Ltd.
43	Tasveer	Vinay Jain
44-45	Yaadein	Viplove, Prateeksha Lonkar
46-47	Saadhana	Iravati Harshe, Yatin Karyekar
48	Bio-Data	Kumud Mishra
49-50	Vapasi	Ashutosh Gowariker	Odyssey Video Communications Ltd. Writer: Ashutosh Gowariker
51	Anokha Milan		Odyssey Video Communications Ltd.
52	Interview	Deepraj Rana
53	Doc Subbu		Odyssey Video Communications Ltd. Director: Anand Subramanian