'24', the Indian adaptation of the award-winning American TV series of the same name finally went on air last weekend after Anil Kapoor and his team spent three years on prepping for the show
While the initial response to the show with some outstanding performance by an ensemble cast, superb production values and gripping moments has been good, it remains to be seen if Kapoor’s magnum opus brings in as many laurels as its American counterpart.
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In the meanwhile, here are some of the less-known facts about the show...
1 Anil Kapoor apparently loved the format of the American 24 so much that he struck a deal for R100 crore to bring the show to India.
2 Even before the casting was underway, Kapoor made it clear that he wanted to work with newcomers, who came with less baggage. Several of the cast members are theatre actors. Puja Ruparel played Kajol’s sister in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Both Neil Bhoopalam and Rajat Kaul are also part of director Rensil D’silva’s Ungli, who has co-written the series. Rajat has done films like Ragini MMS, Kismet Love Paisa Dilli and Soundtrack. Faezeh Jalali, a member of Kapoor’s ATU worked with him in Slumdog Millionaire.
3 Kiefer Sutherland has expressed his desire to work in Kapoor’s 24.
4 So far the crew has shot for almost 20 episodes and each episode took at least 10 days to shoot. The first season is being shot across 12 unexplored locations across the city. The remaining episodes will be shot after taking into account the audience’s response.
5 Although the show has the likes of Rensil D’Silva, Bhavani Iyer, Priya Pinto and Milan Zaveri as dialogue writers, the writer of the original 24, Patrick Harbinson was called upon to have a brainstorming session with the group of writers before the show went on floors. The special speech which Neil’s character is likely to recite in the course of the show has been penned by Javed Akhtar and incidentally Shabana Azmi has done a cameo on the show.
6 Anil Kapoor and his team took special training from The Black Cats commondoes for some sequences. Moreover, Kapoor would carry a loaded gun in his trouser pocket all the time while travelling across the city to get the hang of his character.
7 The average age of most of the crewmembers working on the show is 24.
8 The set of the Anti Terrorist Unit has been erected inside a deserted mill compound at Kurla and the equipments and gadgets shown in the show are in working condition.
9 Since each season spreads over 24 hours, the entire cast had to wear the same clothes and the costume department had a tough task to maintain them. In one of the episodes Kapoor’s character is seen in a costume with blood smears on it. His team had to make sure that the smears remained intact though his costume was being washed and ironed everyday.
10 Shooting amidst the Mumbai monsoons was a difficult task for the makers of the show and they had to shoot a sequence in knee deep water at Aarey Colony. Also several of the crew members including fight director Alan Amin were injured while performing stunts but kept their acts on as the team was on a tight schedule.
11 Neil and Kapoor had to come together for an intense exchange of dialogues, for which the theatre actor had to prep hard, as his Hindi is not very good. They rehearsed the scene for almost 12 hours.
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