SHAAN:
Arthur Hailey’s Hotel revisited

It had to happen sooner than later. Arthur Hailey’s ‘70s classic Hotel was too good a book to resist being adapted for the small screen. Finally, Ashok Shekhar has taken it on himself to produce the Hindi adaptation of the series for telecast on an as-yet-unspecified channel. The series is to be called Shaan and sports a high-profile star-cast.Here’s a sneak preview of the drama and the intrigue, suspense and action, love and romance that makes Shaan.

The story of this serial is inspired by Arthur Hailey’s famous novel Hotel.
It involves Hotel Shaan, a five star hotel which is on the verge of a financial crash. Thirty five years back, its owner Mr. Malhotra had designed this unique edifice with great love and care and it enjoyed the patronage of one and all for its plush surroundings and royal hospitality. Undoubtedly it was rated best amongst all the hotels in the area of Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad.

But with the advent of time, competition grew and several chain hotels came up. The style of hospitality changed and it became more matter of fact and practical. The staff of Hotel Shaan slid into corruption due to the blind faith of its owner Mr. Malhotra, and the hotel started losing its patronage. That led to financial ruin, and today we find it embroiled in a crisis. Proper maintenance is not possible due to shortage of finance.

Sumit, a young executive manager of Hotel Shaam is highly motivated and energetic. He has a dynamic approach towards his profession and his dream is to bring back Shaan to its peak, and he is known as the best in the country. Although Sumit is a recent recruit into Shaan, he can perceive that Shaan still has inherent potential and with some effort, can be saved from its extinction.

On the one hand his sincerity compels him to give his hundred per cent to improve the lot of this institution by bringing in much needed changes. Yet, on the other hand, he is bereft of decision making powers; they are solely vesetd in Mr. Malhotra, who is orthodox and conventional in his thinking. In his struggle, he has to deal with the internal factors viz-a-viz various departments like bell desk, reception, restaurants, bars, in-house detective agency, laundry, kitchen, housekeeping etc. headed by corrupt staff. Then there are external factors like the guests, belonging to different strata and emerging from all walks of life, including politicians, businessmen, teenagers, professional thieves, call girls etc., who keep taking refuge in the premises of Hotel Shaan for their vested interests.

The physical factors, like deteriorating equipments, electical overloading, precariously balancing lifts, add drama and suspense to the multi tracks, evolving out of the interaction of the characters in the Hotel.

The racquet of the trade unions and business tycoons, who are anxiously waiting to grab the ownership of Hotel Shaan, present bigger and more challenging obstacles to Sumit in his effort to redeem his dream world.

The story starts with one Gidwani, an owner of chain hotels, throwing a party in one of London’s hotels, on the occassion of his acquisition of 25th hotel in his chain. Dalmiya, his mentor and financier arrives to congratulate him. During their conversation Gidvani informs Dalmiya that his ambition in life is to purchase Hotel Shaan and avenge the humiliation that was forced upon him by its owner, Malhotra.

Gidwani, reveals that thirty years back he worked in Hotel Shaan as an accountant and was implicated in a case of misappropriation of hotel funds by Malhotra, whereby Gidwani had to undergo an imprisonment of 13 months. Today when Shaan is going through financial crisis, Gidwani aims to buy it over and settle his score with Malhotra by inflicting shame and hardship on him.

For this Gidwani needs finance which Dalmiya assures him gladly. As usual Gidwani offers 20 per cent shares of hotel to Dalmiya in return. But Dalmiya informs Gidwani that this twenty percent share of Hotel Shaan he wants on his daughter Simran’s name because today happens to be her birthday and he wants to give it as a gift to her.

Back in India — in Hyderabad where Dalmiya owns a palatial house - Simran lives alone, with a battery of attendents and servants. Her mother divorced from her father even when she was a child. The father has no time for her, as he is mostly away on business trips. The heaping of costly gifts by her father does not amuse her, and today on the threshold of adulthood, she finds herself as lonely as ever.

A call from one of her college friends, Dinesh, draws her to Hotel Shaan, where they have organised a get together in one of the suites. Innocent as she is, she was not aware that the crafty boys have evil designs and want to molest her.

In another suite of Hotel Shaan a minister’s daughter Manjula and her M.P. husband, along with their lap dog Dollar, have lodged themselves after involving in a hit and run case in which one women and child have died. To escape publicity and police action, they are trying to create an alibi about their presence in the Hotel at the time of accident.

Neha the young, executive secretary of the owner Malhotra, is informed by the reception that a minister’s daughter is complaining about the noisy revelry from their adjoining suite and desires to see the owner immediately. Since Malhotra is not in town, Neha rushes to inform the general manager Sunit, about the commotion in the hotel. Little does Sunit know that at the same time a murder was being committed in another room of the hotel.

Also active is a professional thief in his nightly hours. To his frustration Sumit discovers that Devi Dutt, the in-house security in-charge, is missing, as usual, when he is needed most. The troubles in Hotel Shaan, keep on multiplying day after day, and Sumit is caught deeper and deeper in the web.

Along the way, he is also torn between the love of Neha, a mature colleague, and the child-like passion of Simran — the daughter of a multi-millionaire, whom he had rescued from being molested. Against all odds, Sumit strives and strives, till the emerges victorious and achieves his goal.
Shaan is a tale of suspese, drama, love and human relationships; at the same time reflecting the greed, malice, selfishness, passion and innocence of various characters at the cross road of society.