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By Priyanka Bhadani
Yudhisthir Sikarwir: Amitabh Bachchan
The actor plays a real estate baron, who has been diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disorder and is struggling with his collapsing health, complicated family issues, besides tackling business rivals.
Anurag Kashyap
Yudh’s father in some of the sequences when the series goes into flashback.
Gauri: Sarika
Yudhisthir’s first wife, a woman of substance, Gauri decides to walk her own path when Yudh loses track of his life.
Nayantara: Aayesha Raza
Yudhisthir’s second wife in the series, who shares a tense relationship with her husband, that is aggravated because of her brother’s criminal past and their son’s
lax attitude.
Taruni: Aahana Kumra
Yudh’s daughter from his first marriage. A surgeon by profession, she is the good Samaritan who believes in helping people.
Rishi: Pavail Gulati
Yudh’s son from his second marriage. An irresponsible guy, he is the major issue of contention between Yudh and Nayantara.
Anand Upadhyay: Zakir Hussain
Yudhisthir’s closest confidante, who advises Yuddh about handling difficult issues
in his life.
Minister: Tigmanshu Dhulia
The film-maker plays a small but pivotal role in the series.
Municipal Commissioner: Kay Kay Menon
Loyal to none, the actor essays the role of a diplomatic character in the series. He supports the right as well as the wrong.
On the home front
Though a business baron belonging to a small town, Fahimabad in Uttar Pradesh, Yudhisthir Sikarwar makes a style statement dressed impeccably in Armani suits. “Since he has a very subtle style sense, we had to design his office and residence accordingly,” says Sunil Nigvekar, the art director on the show. An old building in Lonavala was converted to a swanky building — Yudh’s residence (left), while the Tata Bungalow in Marol was turned into a corporate office. A few scenes have been shot at a mental asylum as Yudh suffers from a neurological syndrome. “After intensive research, we created a mental asylum at the SL Studio in Chembur,” says Nigverkar.
On the road
Considering the show stars Amitabh Bachchan, it wasn’t an easy job for the team to shoot outdoors as a huge crowd would swarm for a glimpse of the superstar. “We had to cancel our shoot at the RCL Colony, Chembur where Mr Bachchan had to come out of a car and walk towards a building for a sequence. The public surrounded the car and we were helpless,” says director Ribhu Dasgupta. After the aforementioned incident, the team decided to play it safe. Thus, for another outdoor shoot that required Bachchan to cross a foot-over bridge, the team planned the shoot early in the morning. “In one of the scenes, Mr Bachchan had to notice a fault in the construction of the bridge after which he had to call the minister. We wanted a real location for this and zeroed in on The Bombay Port Trust bridge near VT station,” says Tribhuvan Babu, the DOP about the scene that was shot at six in the morning.
In the coal mines
A major sequence features coal mines of Madhya Raj in Uttar Pradesh. Spread across nine to ten episodes, the mines are an integral part of the series. Since it wasn’t feasible for the team to shoot at a real coal mine, a stone quarry located near Virar was converted to look like one. Nigverkar says that the stones were painted black in order to look like coals. “In fact, we painted a big mountain of stones to create the entire facade,” he says.
“Since the location is really nice and Mr Bachchan had to address a huge gathering in that particular sequence, we wanted a full view and thus opted for an octacopter for an aerial perspective of the location,” says Babu.
Although, the sequence was shot during summer, the entire unit of 300 people were excited to work with Bachchan. “When Mr Bachchan came on the sets, he brought with him a lot of positivity and the unit would perk up,” he remarks.
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