The two-part set design of Sunil Grover's Mad In India bears strong resemblance to Jay leno's chat show and Nukkad. The cast spoke to Iknoor Kaur about their X factor
Glittering wings, drums on the sidewalk, New York in the backdrop and a polished floor — the visual brings to mind the picture of Jay leno quipping in The Tonight Show. But Manish Paul is the leno here, hopping from one end to the other of the lavish set of Mad In India.
The scene opens to reveal the setting of a chat show with a leather couch and a neatly framed desk. As the drums began to roll, Priya Patel, in her six-inch stilettos, tip-toed on stage. But Manish was the show stealer here. looking urbane in mirrored blue aviators and a well-creased suit, he took everyone by storm. People were enthralled by his wit, humour and innocence. The audience hadn’t had enough of him when the stage began revolving. What came up next was the scene of a locality called Bharat Nagar. Dolly Ahluwalia, Khayali Saharan, Shweta Tewari, Siddharth Jadhav and Sunil Grover aka Chutki are residents of this locality. In the forthcoming show Mad In India, you will see these characters at their humorous best.
The revolving set of the show is divided into two parts. While the design of one part bears a strong resemblance to the stage setting of Jay leno’s show, the other part has been designed like a locality (and not a home as in Comedy Nights With Kapil).
Director Rajeev Dhingra says that the show is somewhat like the popular television series Nukkad. In the mix, the satirical show promises to be a family entertainer. Dhingra elaborates, “We wanted the show to reflect India. So we built an entire society or basti which envelopes various flavours from across the country. It is about the aam aadmi.”
In sync with that, costume designer and national award-winning actress Dolly Ahluwalia’s character Mango Dolly is a pure interpretation of aam. “Mango is juicy, mango is khatta (sour), mango is tasty, mango is sweet and mango has a seed inside. That describes my character,” explains the actress who’s making her debut on television with the show.
The cast of the show is an ensemble of nine people where Dolly plays Chutki’s mother and Shweta Tewari is a struggling actress. Talking about her character Shweta says, “My name is Katrina Mishra and I am a wannabe actress. luck has never favoured me and that is why my name is Kat-ri-na.”
Before the show was finalised, grapevine had it that Sunil Grover aka Chutki would be the central character of the show. However, the show highlights every character, especially Manish. According to the Manish, who conceptualised the serial with Grover, there is no competition between the actors. “We don’t care who gets more or less attention. At the end of the day we are one team. If Sachin scores well and wins the match, it’s India who wins. So we are not insecure of who is getting more attention because every single person in the cast is important,” says the actor who previously hosted Jhalak Dhikhhla Ja with Kapil Sharma. “When we talk of comedy people immediately think of Kapil. People taunt us often that we are doing this show to kill his show, but why would we do thatIJ That is a comedy show, this is a family entertainer,” he adds when asked about the inevitable comparison between the two shows.
Dhingra was the one to conceptualise the show after which Manish and Grover developed it. He shares, “I conceptualised the script, show and set. There are so many things on the set that even if we shoot 100 episodes on this set everyday there will be something new about each.”
Manish feels that demeaning comedy is not what they intend to do. He says, “In comedy one has to make fun of people. However, I like to make fun of people and of myself too. It adds a feel-good factor to the show.” The show will air once a week on Star Plus from February 16.