Making a film out of serial story

“Madhavan suddenly had the idea that why not make Ghar Jamai as a film. Today, the best way to go on a pan-India audience is by getting South and North Indian audience together. Casting a North Indian as a North Indian and a South Indian as a South Indian would really hit the audience of both the regions effectively,” said Anant Mahadevan.

 The television series was first showed on Doordarshan where Mahadevan played a South Indian son-in-law and Satish Shah his North Indian father-in-law. Later in 1997, it was aired on Zee TV and this time Mahadevan directed the series, while Madhavan played the North Indian-son-in-law and Satish Shah repeated his role.

“The series became very, very popular in both the seasons. It was more of a comedy of manners and wits than a farcical comedy. We always thought that it has the scope of a regular feature film but we did not attempt to do it,” said Mahadevan, whose last directorial venture was the film ‘Red Alert: The War Within’.

In the film, Madhavan will reprise the title role. “Madhavan will play the protagonist. But we have to decide on the rest of the cast. That would not be the same as the television series at all,” said Mahadevan. However, it would strictly have a fresh plot  with a new set of star cast unlike the other television series like Khichdi and ‘Office Office’, which were turned into the film recently,” said Mahadevan.

“To do a comedy of a South Indian boy in a North Indian household is like a cat and mouse or Tom and Jerry type of game that takes place between the father-in-law and the son-in-law. I would be very careful not to fall into the pitch that other television serials have done. I don’t want to name them but there have been two or three films that have been made on popular television serials and they fell flat on their faces because they made it like a television show repeating the same cast, same situations. Why would one spend Rs 300 to watch what they can get on a television?” said Mahadevan.