The movie will be directed and produced by Aanand Mahindroo, who also directed the television serial. The entire original cast of the TV show including Farida Jalal (Suhasini), Bhavana Balsawar (Sunita), Navin Nischol (Balraj), Sushma Seth (Dadiji), Deven Bhojani (Kareema), Vishal Singh (Sanjay), Natasha Singh (Kirti) will be retained in the movie. Also apart from the new generation of kids that will be added to the starcast, Boman Irani will also star in the movie.
Additionally, the female lead of the movie who will be paired opposite Adhyayan will be decided by a talent hunt on television.
Speaking exclusively to Businessofcinema.com, Mahindroo, who also runs Infinity Film Completion Services, says, "The television show was a rage and people still remember it and its characters. Over the last 15 years, a lot of people have asked me to make a film on it but I resisted. Recently we carried out a survey of 15 – 55 year olds across seven Indian states and asked them about show and their memories of it. I was pleasantly surprised to know that the audience hasn’t forgotten any of it. Also, all the actors that I wanted to cast in the film were available so it was the right time to make the film."
Mahindroo says that the film will go on floors on 15 July and will have a total of eight songs.
Talking about the need for a reality show hunt for the female lead, Mahindroo says that the show will not be judged by anyone but the audience. "It is a very unique format of one hour duration, which will be aired three times a week for eight weeks. Shekhar Suman will also be a part of the show. We will have the audience decide the winner. That way, when we present her in the movie, she will already be a star as she would have won by popular public voting."
However, Mahindroo remained non-committal about the channel that the reality show will be aired on.
While the trend of converting serials into movies has been prevalent in the Hollywood with serials such as Sex and The City being converted into motion pictures, this is the first Indian serial to be made into a movie. The story for the film will continue from the point it left off in the serial, with Adhyayan playing the grown up son of Shekhar Suman. Adhyayan plays an army officer in the film.
