Producer Saurabh Tewari will get out of his comfort zone and for the very first time get into the genre of humour and comedy with his new show, Krishna Chali London for Star Plus.
In a time when most of the TV shows work around the female protagonist, this will be one show which will dwell on the dreams and aspirations of a man!!
In conversation with IWMBuzz.com, Producer Saurabh talks about his new experimental show, his lead actor and his thought process behind conceptualizing this show.
Says Saurabh, “I had conceptualized this concept seven years back when I was heading Imagine. Later I moved out and that was when we decided to pitch it to other broadcasters. We had a strong belief and hope in our story; hence tried our best to work on it. Everything on TV is about a girl and a girl’s marriage is a big societal issue in India. The normal consensus is that if a boy is rich, even if illiterate, he will get married and the girl coming in will have to adjust to his whims and fancies. However, in our show, the boy is facing a major problem in getting married. His whole agenda in life is to get married, and he feels that his life is settled once he is married.”
“The character of Radhe is inspired by a real life character. One of my cousins faced a problem with marriage. Actually most of the characters in the show are from the real world. I have used all my experience of growing up in Lucknow for 20 years in this show. There are a lot of nuances, humour quotient, dialect from the place. The show is neither an out and out comedy nor an out and out drama. Even in the saddest of situations, there is a dark humour and satire attached in the story plot,” he adds.
Saurabh, being a big fan of film maker Rajkumar Hirani loves the kind of story telling that he gives even to serious subjects. “I am amazed seeing the narratives of Hirani. The manner in which he gives the serious subjects a light, slice of life tonality in the narrative is so very nice to see. Krishna Chali London is my tribute to Rajkumar Hirani and his style of storytelling.”
Talking about his lead character Radhe, portrayed by actor Gaurav Sareen, Saurabh states, “He’s a boy from Kanpur. He has not done anything in life and has always been dependent on his father. He is born with a silver spoon. The boy is desperate to get married, and believes that his family will get him a girl too. What happens when Krishna comes into his life is something really interesting to watch.”
Saurabh Tewari has a good ensemble cast in the show, mostly being actors he has earlier worked with. “With experienced actors like Sushmita Mukherjee, Bhagwan Tiwari, Madhuri Sanjeev, Neeraj Sood on board, I am happy. I have mostly worked with all the actors before. The lead actors are great actors. Gaurav Sareen is a great find according to me. It was very difficult to find a boy for this role, as the boy had to have the innocence quotient on his face. Even if he is non-heroic, he had to come out as a hero with his innocence factor. Gaurav fits the bill perfectly. He is a good actor too.”
Krishna Chali London at the 9 PM slot will only mean that it will face direct competition with the top-rated shows. “We have Kumkum Bhagya and Bepannaah as competition and it will be tough.”
Talking about moving out of the comfort zone with this show, Saurabh avers, “It is always important as a maker to enjoy whatever you do. This is truly an experimental show for me. I don’t know how the results will be, but I am happy that this allowed me to come out of my comfort zone. In my 6-7 years career as a Producer, in all my shows (Madhubala, Rang Rasiya, Badtameez Dil, Do Dil Ek Jaan, Ghulaam, Zindagi Ki Mehek) my heroes have always been the heavy brooding men. I wanted to come out of this. Here, Radhey is not at all the brooding guy and you can see it in promos. Also, I have never tried my hand at humour and comedy. Everyone has their own hit formula and mine is to create heroes who are the brooding men. Most of my heroes have gotten very popular, and I could have easily made one more Madhubala with the same type of storytelling. But I wanted to push myself and try my hand at something I am not used to.”
On expectations, “Saurabh says, “I am happy that I have tried to create something very different from my forte. A lot of hard work has gone in. I want viewers to sample the first two episodes and see for themselves, the uniqueness in the narrative.”
Best of luck, Saurabh and team!!
