Raj Nidimoru: Thought of treating James Bond like government employee

A still from The Family Man

All too often, it is believed that the choices of the masses and critics are poles apart. But if the winners' list of the Mid-day and Radio City Hitlist Web Awards 2020 is any indication, the jury and the audience have a strong and clear favourite - The Family Man. The Amazon Prime Video offering, headlined by Manoj Bajpayee, swept the maiden edition of the awards gala, which aims to honour the best in the web world in the year 2019. While the series won the top two honours of Best Series and Best Creator, Neeraj Madhav and Priyamani were adjudged the Best Supporting Actor (Male) and (Female) respectively. A gong in the Best Writing category rounded off its five wins.

The pandemic may have led to the deferral of the on-ground award ceremony, but the taste of victory - though delayed - is just as sweet. Creator-director duo Raj and DK say that the series sparked from a simple thought: What would a desi spy be like? Raj Nidimoru says, "We didn't want to give him cool gadgets or slow-motion action sequences. Our spy had to be from Chembur, eating vada pav, riding a scooter, and asking his boss for a raise. Srikant's [Tiwari, Bajpayee's character] middle-class values are the charm of the show. On paper, this man has a cool job, but in the end, it's a government job. So, we went with the idea of treating James Bond like a government employee. We developed the script for one-and-a-half years with Suman Kumar. Sumit Arora added his funny zest to the dialogues."

DK and Raj

If the series is popular across age groups, Raj credits the strength of the format that allows more room to develop characters. "Here, the villains too have back-stories. Usually, shows about counter-terrorism are grim and gritty. But we treated some sequences with humour, which made it unique and palatable to a large section of the audience."

The series' resounding win reiterates Raj's belief in following his instinct. "It's a great feeling to have won awards for a show that DK and I took a mere chance on. We had no prior experience in making a series, nor did we know how to crack long-format storytelling. The reach and the feedback have been overwhelming," he says, months away from releasing the second edition of the spy thriller.

Tripathi and Raina won the top acting honours

Mohit Raina walked away with the Best Actor (Male) award for his performance in his web debut, Kaafir. Shweta Tripathi Sharma got the Best Actor (Female) nod for Laakhon Mein Ek Season 2.

And the award goes to...

Best Series
The Family Man (Amazon Prime)

Best New Season
Little Things Season 3 (Netflix)

Best Adaptation (Book/Series)
Sacred Games Season 2 (Netflix)

Best Non-Hindi Film on Web
Madhu C Narayanan's Kumbalangi Nights (Malayalam, Amazon Prime)

Best Creator
Raj-DK (The Family Man, Amazon Prime)

Best Web Film
Faruk Kabir's 377 Ab Normal (Zee5)

Best Actor (Male)
Mohit Raina (Kaafir, Zee5)

Best Actor (Female)
Shweta Tripathi Sharma (Laakhon Mein Ek S02, Amazon Prime)

Best Supporting Actor (Male)
Neeraj Madhav (The Family Man, Amazon Prime)

Best Supporting Actor (Female)
Priyamani (The Family Man, Amazon Prime)

Best Comedy (Non-fiction)
One Mic Stand (Sapan Verma, Amazon Prime)

Best Writing
The Family Man (Raj-DK, Suman Kumar, Sumit Arora; Amazon Prime)

Best International Season
Stranger Things Season 3 (Netflix)

Best International Show
Chernobyl (Disney+Hotstar)

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