Dishayen is a popular Indian television serial, which started airing on DD National channel from October 8, 2001 to 2002. Later, it was also aired on Channel 7-9 and from 2002 up to the present, it is still airing on Ajman TV. The soap was also brought by Hungary, China and the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) like Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan and more. The serial was created by Minakshi Gupta and IIa Bedi Dutta.
Dishayen is a story about the twin sisters, Neha (portrayed by Purbi Joshi in the first season and Pooja Ghai in the second season) and Nikita (portrayed by Purbi Joshi in the first season and Pooja Ghai in the second season), who both dream to have a successful career in Bollywood. Neha is much simpler than Nikita. But their father, Colonel Sharma (portrayed by Rajiv Verma) wanted her daughter, Nikita to marry Rajive (portrayed by Karan Oberoi), the handsome stepbrother of Sameer (portrayed by Sudhanshu Pandey). However, Nikita doesn’t want to marry him so she told her twin sister that she will commit suicide if she won’t agree to her plan. Nikita wants her twin sister to make everyone believe that she is Nikita and marry Rajive. She tried to convince Neha by telling her that she wished to have a peaceful family life. Neha finally agreed and the night after their wedding, she admitted to Rajive that she is not the real Nikita. Rajive told her that he knows everything, since Nikita already told him about her plan and he agreed because he wanted a wife like Neha. Neha and Nikita’s aunt (potrayed by Shagufta Ali) learns about the substitution and instantly inform, Mrs. Gayatri (portrayed by Vinita Mallik), the mother of Rajive, about what she knows. She got mad and forces Neha to leave their house.
Later on, the story shows that Neha won the hearts of her in-laws and make them like her by showing good deeds; except for Sameer. He is the black sheep of the family and was known as the Baba of the underworld. Nobody knows about it and nobody even notice that he developed special feelings for Nikita. Meanwhile, Nikita receives her punishment after forcing her sister to marry Rajive. A producer (portrayed by Uday Tikekar) is trying to blackmail her. After making her drunk, he took semi-nude photos of Nikita.
Nikita went to her sister and meet her secretly. She told her everything and the twins made a plan. But before their plan happens, they both met an accident. Nikita luckily survives but Neha was missing. Neha’s in-laws think that Nikita dies on the accident. Nikita suddenly realized that if she wanted to escape, she needs to mimic her twin sister. She was successful with her plan and was brought back to Rajive’s house.
Nikita got used to her in-laws and she realizes that it was really a mistake to refuse to marry Rajive. In the meantime, Sameer, together with Neha’s cousin, tried to make Nikita’s life miserable; unknown to the fact that she is the real Nikita. Nikita gradually become a devoted wife to Rajive and later develop a special feeling for him.
Meanwhile, nobody knows that Neha survived the accident and lost her memory. When her memory was back, she went back to her in-laws and was still unaware about Rajive and Nikita. Sameer killed Neha and Nikita’s cousin and Rajive was framed up. Colonel Sharma and her wife were both distressed to what have happened, both unaware of another tragedy that will come their way. Vishal (portrayed by Narendra Jha) is a villain and the illegitimate child of Colonel Sharma. He was raised only by her mother who already died and he aims to make revenge against his father.
When Vishal’s identity was revealed, the twin’s mother despised her husband and the twins accepted him as a brother. Later on, Neha found the truth about her sister and Rajive and to make it worst, Nikita is pregnant with Rajive. Things become more complicated when Neha founds out that she is also pregnant with Rajive. She confronted her husband and asked him to divorce her twin sister.
Meantime, Vishal and Sameer becomes enemy too and this becomes worst when Sameer founds out that the twins are both pregnant. He was upset as he realizes his feelings for Nikita. Due to an accident, Nikita lost her child and she was sad to know that Rajive is about to divorce her. Oddly, the accident brings the twin’s parents together and they finally accepted Vishal. Sameer surrendered himself to the police. Neha founds out that Rajive did not really serve his divorce papers with Nikita and Neha doubted her loyalty.
Rajive was really disturbed to what had happened to the twins. When he failed to serve the divorce papers, Neha got mad and threatens him that she will file a divorce. Sameer agreed with Neha and the two leave the house; but another accident happens to the two. Sameer asked for forgiveness to all of them and later dies. Nikita and Rajive attend to Neha as she gave birth to twins and she also dies.