After shows like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Circus, Byomkesh Bakshi and others started to re-air on Doordarshan in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the following 21-day lockdown, popular channel Star Bharat has decided to bring back its immensely popular TV show Sarabhai vs Sarabhai. The show, which aired on Star One from 2004 to 2006, is still remembered by the audience for its witty dialogues and compelling performances by a stellar cast of Satish Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Sumeet Raghavan, Rajesh Kumar and Rupali Ganguly.
Directed and written by Aatish Kapadia, the story of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai revolved around a dysfunctional family with Satish and Ratna (as parents Indravadan and Maya Sarabhai), Rajesh (as Rosesh), Sumeet and Rupali (as the son and wife Sahil and Monisha Sarabhai). Nonetheless, the show was way ahead of its time and who doesn't remember Maya's high-class persona, Monisha's middle-class problems, Rosesh's poems, Indu's one-liners or Sahil's troubles.
Now in an exclusive chat with PeepingMoon.com, Rajesh who played the role of Momma’s boy Rosesh in the serial, opened up on his role and shared some anecdotes from the sitcom's shoot. Excerpts from the interview:
How do you feel about Star Bharat’s decision to re-air Sarabhai vs Sarabhai?
We all saw the last season with 10 episodes and we certainly felt that it should have been on TV rather than on the web because not everybody probably would download Hotstar. Now with the show coming back to TV, there is an excitement as television’s reach is wider and Star Bharat is a popular channel. More so in this quarantine and lockdown, people need to be cheered up rather than getting serious about the situation. In fact, if a person is happy, the immune system automatically works better.
Although Sarabhai vs Sarabhai has been on Hotstar for a while, do you think in the era of OTT platforms, bringing back old TV shows makes sense or not?
See agar hum is generation ki baat kare, we all got so busy that we stopped thinking about a lot of things. Today’s kids, they are not well versed with our culture or shows like Mahabharat, Ramayan etc. But in our case, it was part of our history and culture. Not according to religious angle, but as per a moral story in a good sense. So in order to raise their interest in these shows, the OTT platforms work better since they cannot run out now and are compelled to watch these shows. And why not? They can see something more meaningful and I am so happy that the audience can now start their day happily by watching shows like Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and Khichdi.
Your character of Rosesh Sarabhai became hugely popular? Can you share some anecdotes from the shoot
See, I am very lucky to have that character and mere ilawa, kisi aur ka audition nai hua tha. Apparently, the director, writer and producer were so confident of me that they finalised me for the role. Taiyaari mein gaye the 2-3 mahine as I wanted to be thorough with the role. In fact, after the audition, I came back and told my wife that if I bag this role, something would happen to me, in a good sense.
Can we expect another season of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai?
Well, it depends on the show’s popularity on TV now. We will never say no to anything like that as the second season too was because of the media pressure. Now let’s see how do the TRPs fare after the show’s re-run on TV and we can think of something!
Lastly, how are you spending you quarantine time?
Oh, it has been beautiful. Din ka pata hi nai chalta hai and I am never bored. 2-2.5 hours of my time goes in meditation, yoga and workout. I have been isolated for the past 26-27 days and the interesting part is that we have made 2 meals a day and each of them being different. So that’s 52 new recipes that we have tried and we don’t intend to repeat any food item till the lockdown is over. We would like to continue exploring.
