Filmmaker Umesh Shukla, who got popular with his film Oh My God!, is currently busy with an upcoming show Khidki. The show, which will be aired on SAB TV, is being produced by Umesh, JD Majethia and Aatish Kapadia. This weekly episodic series is inspired from real life funny stories sent by viewers. In an interview, Shukla shares his experience:
Q1. Did you receive many stories from viewers for your show?
Ans: We never expected to receive 7,600 stories from people in just two months! We have a team of good writers who shortlist them. The best part of conceptualising this show is that they are real life stories and you come to the conclusion that 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' Everyone has a unique style of writing them.
Q2. How many of these stories have you been able to convert into episodes?
Ans: When JD Majethia approached me to attempt something out-of-the-box, I saw that he was ready to take risk. We have found many stories that touched our hearts and made us laugh. Also, there were a few shocking stories that we converted into episodes and in retrospect now, they sound humorous.
Q3. Did you face issues in shortlisting the content that you received?
Ans: When someone is sending their life story, it is important that it should not look like you are making a joke out of their experiences. But we were able to bridge that because of our writers. Some people used to send their story in just 1-2 lines, and to execute such a story over 2-3 episodes was difficult. For instance, a regular show will have the same setting everytime, but here with every new story, the setting changes.Khidki premieres on June 28, and will air every Monday to Friday at 9.30 pm on SAB TV.