Mumbai: After announcing India’s first digital social experiment Ho Ja Re-gender, Arré is now ready to launch its first sitcom as part of its launch slate next month.
I Don’t Watch TV (IDWT) is a wild comedy on the ever evolving Indian TV Industry, it’s idiosyncrasies and colourful inhabitants. It’s also a tongue in cheek commentary on India’s decadent celebrity culture and everyone’s obsession with Bollywood. Interestingly the show is produced by Nakuul Mehta, a TV star himself, for Arré and stars some of the biggest names from the world of daily soaps.
This is the first time we get an up close and personal look at the daily soap world through the eyes of an A list TV star, Nakuul Mehta playing himself.
Experimental and cinematic in nature, this “anti-series” presents some of the biggest stars of Indian television – Drashti Dhami, Karan Patel, Rithvik Dhanjani, Kritika Kamra and Karan Wahi et al – in never before seen avatars. Not restricting itself to daily soaps, the show even has a humorous cameo by revered film critic Rajeev Masand. Nakuul’s close friend Alekh Sanghal also plays his best pal in this series which features Ram Menon and is directed by Ajay Singh.
B Saikumar, Founder & MD, Arré said, “Arré aims to be a multi-genre, multi-format content brand and for the mobile and digital consumer who is increasingly moving away from TV – to that end, I Don’t Watch TV, is perhaps the ideal sitcom to launch our video slate with. We don’t believe in doing the straight and narrow and after Ho Ja Re-gender, a social experiment on gender issues, we now present IDWT which is a fictionalised, irreverant, yet realistic look at the idiosyncracies of the daily soap industry. And Nakuul represents the honesty and the dichotomy of this age – and we’re thrilled that he is so passionate about this project himself.”
Produced by Nakuul Mehta of Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha Pyara Pyara (sic!), the series has two seasons initially. The first season of 5 episodes is shot and ready for launch and the second will be going into production soon.
Nakuul Mehta said, “We found a great synergy with the folks at Arré and their backing of disruptive ideas makes them a perfect platform for IDWT.
This series is truth meets part fiction meets part bizarre, which in essence is Indian television, today. It has been our labour of love and we have been keen to tell this story for a long time as it is personal and quite intense in a lot of ways, though it’s presented in a humorous and edgy way.”
