While the idea is completly novel to Indians, the West has already experimented with the concept successfully. Captain Kirk and Dr Spock from Star Trek were as popular on the small screen as they were on the big screen. In fact, there was a series of films based on the sci-fi serial and all turned out to be superhits. The latest serial to be converted into 70 mm is the highly popular comedy/drama Sex & The City.
Will the concept work in India? Supriya Pathak who played Hansa in Khichdi, sees a lot of potential in it because “the serial was character-based and the characters were very popular. People would love to see them in a larger context”. And yes, she is more than willing to be a part of it.
Shekhar Suman who catapulted to fame after his comic act in Dekh Bhai Dekh was surprised that the director was planning a film based on it. “I will be more than happy to be a part of it if it’s being made into a film. After all, Dekh... kick-started my career,” he says fondly. He, however feels that the format has to be changed as the story has to be told in two hours. “But there’s no reason why the film won’t work since the same audiences who watch television frequent theatres,” he states.
Even Majethia is confident of the film drawing viewers. “Khichdi went off the air when people were still hungry for it. That's the reason I decided to take it a step ahead and make a film. My aim is to produce such a film that people will forget the serial,” he says. He, however, is yet to decide on the cast. “Of course, it will be great and ideal to have the same actors playing the main characters but it will depend on their availability. But right now, I am not touching on that aspect because we are still working on the script,” says the producer.
Besides the main characters Hansa, Jayshree, Babuji and Praful, Majethia intends introducing a lot of new characters in the film.
Will he make a film on any of his other hit serials? No, says Majethia who feels that it is only the genre of comedy that can be adapted from the small to the big screen. “I would never make a film on Baa Bahoo Aur Baby, though it is popular because soaps get over-exposed,” he opines. But Dheeraj Kumar of Creative Eye and the man behind many mythologicals and socials disagrees. “When a hit serial has a huge storyline and runs for over 200 episodes, we can pick up the best episodes since we have the viewer feedback and weave a story around it for a film,” he says though he has no immediate plans of converting any serial into a film.
Vikram Behl, COO, Spotboy, while agreeing that the films based on serials are not genre specific, “it’s purely story-driven”, is extremely doubtful about the concept working in India. “Here we have dailies which over-exhaust themselves. In Hollywood, the serials take a seasonal break for six months. They are usually one hour weeklies where-in the quality of story-telling is superior,” he reasons.
To get a true ‘picture’ we have to wait for either Khichdi or Dekh Bhai Dekh to hit the theatres. As Majethia jocularly puts it, “We have been the first ones to announce it, hope we are the first to execute it.”
