Small is Big

The first Indian television show to be made into a Hindi feature film — Khichdi — is ready for a October 1 release. Encouraged by the experience of adapting the popular TV serial for the big screen,producer J D Majethia is now raring to showcase the story of the Sarabhais on celluloid. Most India television viewers are familiar with them through the 2005 sitcom Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and its many reruns.

Sarabhai vs Sarabhai revolves around the life of a fictional Gujarati family,the Sarabhais,as well as various unexpected happenings in their household often leading to comic situations. Much of its humour is derived from the artificiality and shallowness in the interactions of the city’s elite and their perceived notions of the shortcomings of middle class society. “Remaking a serial clicks only when it has comic elements in it. Otherwise,nobody is interested in seeing a family drama as a film. Somehow,I thought Sarabhai would be ideal because of the popularity it enjoyed,” says Majethia,who has produced successful TV shows like Khichdi,Baa,Bahoo Aur Baby and Shree.

Ever since Sarabhai vs Sarabhai went off air, Majethia has been getting requests to come up with its second season. “However,I thought a movie on it would be a better idea,” he says. Its script will be ready soon after Khichdi’s release. The storyline will incorporate all the primary elements of the show. Majethia even hopes to retain the original cast for the movie,comprising Satish Shah,Ratna Pathak Shah,Sumeet Raghavan,Rupali Ganguly and Rajesh Kumar. “The audience is used to seeing Satish Shah as the father. We obviously cannot replace him with Amitabh Bachchan. That will be so inappropriate,” the producer says.