Amazon Prime Video’s Mumbai Diaries 26/11 was highly praised for brilliantly exploring the challenges faced by the medical staff at the hospital while dealing with a crisis of immense magnitude. Disney+Hotstar’s Human, which starred Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari, was acclaimed for portraying the underbelly of human drug testing and the world of medical scams. Dice Media’s Operation MBBS, which chronicles the lives of three first-year students as they navigate through friendships, hardships, and medical student lives, was also a huge success on Youtube. There have been more such shows like LSD: Love, Scandal & Doctor, Medically Yourrs, and Laakhon Mein Ek Season 2, among others, which revolved around conventionally good-looking men and women, dressed in scrubs, defying odds and saving lives. And now, we are getting more of these kinds of medical dramas.
The next medical show is coming from Hichki director Siddharth P. Malhotra’s production banner, Alchemy Films. The filmmaker has joined hands with Jio Studios for a medical drama series that stars Sharad Kelkar and Harleen Sethi in the lead roles. The yet-untitled project is said to be a blend of a heavy dose of romance and drama and will see both actors playing the roles of doctors. It’s believed to be more along the lines of Malhotra’s own Star Plus show, Sanjivani, which was about two complete opposites who struggle to deal with their attraction towards each other as they navigate the ups and downs of their life and career at Sanjivani Hospital. The new show also stars Vivaan Shah, Teena Singh, and Aamir Ali in pivotal roles and has already gone on floors. Sahir Raza of Ilegal-Justice, Out of Order, and The Married Women fame is directing it.
Alchemy Films has lately been exploring the OTT space and has so far produced three web series: Dia Mirza’s Kaafir for Zee5, Sharman Joshi and Gul Panag’s MX Player show, Pawan & Pooja, and this year’s Amazon Prime series, Bestseller, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Shruti Haasan, Arjan Bajwa, Gauhar Khan, and Satyajeet Dubey. Their medical show is expected to premiere on Voot Select early next year.
Meanwhile, Sharad Kelkar and Harleen Sethi have worked on many web shows previously. While Sharad has been a part of The Family Man, Special OPS, London Confidential, Rangbaaz, and Black Widows, Harleen has acted in shows such as Broken But Beautiful, The Gone Game, and The Test Case. She is also doing Milan Luthria’s Disney+Hotstar series, Sultan of Delhi, and a Netflix show for Karnesh Ssharma’s Clean Slate Filmz.
