Raaj Shaandilyaa spreading laughs online through OTT

Raaj Shaandilyaa with Abhishek Banerjee

While there's no denying that digital entertainment has upped the content game in India, filmmaker Raaj Shaandilyaa notes there aren't enough comedy shows. This has led the writer-director, who displayed his expertise in the genre with DreamGirl (2019), to be web-bound. He has begun filming his maiden OTT venture, The Great Weddings of Munnes, with Abhishek Banerjee and Barkha Singh in Rohtak. The series, which depicts a middle-class man's desperate attempts to marry the woman of his dreams, will see Shaandilyaa serve as creator-producer and Sunil Subramani as the director.

Barkha Singh

"With so many crime and thriller shows being made, I felt there should be a comedy show mounted on a big scale of a Bollywood movie. The team at Jio Studios backed my vision. Our aim is to change the trend," says Shaandilyaa, who intends to shoot the series across Mathura, Agra, Hyderabad and Jaipur.

For Banerjee, the laugh riot comes as a change of pace after his serious turns in Rashmi Rocket and Ankahi Kahaniya. "I look for roles that challenge me as an actor. I was [itching] to do a good comedy. When the makers approached me to play Munnes and narrated the story to me, I was blown away by the material," says the actor. Singh adds, "I'm looking forward to sharing screen space with Abhishek for the first time."

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