Office Office The MovieMusaddilal and Pandeji wooed audiences with their act in Office Office. Soon they will do the same on the big screen. The challenge was to make a truly interesting film of two hours as compared to a 20-minute episode, says director Rajiv Mehra. While Pankaj Kapur reprises the pivotal role of Musaddilal,other actorsDeven Bhojani,Manoj Pahwa,Hemant Pandey and Asawari Joshi will also play their part. Additions to the cast are Farida Jalal,playing Musaddilals wife and Gaurav Kapur Musaddilals son Bunty, confirms Mehra. Like most serials,this one too was studio-based. But with a bigger budget we have taken the film outdoors. A good part of the film is shot in Haridwar,Rishikesh and New Delhi. It does not only remain a comedy,but has moments of drama and emotions. Largely it is a story of fight against the rot in the system, says Mehra who hopes to release it by early 2010. Dekh Bhai DekhA family sitcom of the 1990s,Dekh Bhai Dekh takes a generation leap in the movie format. While the entire cast of the original has been retained,the generation leap will have Samir Diwans (played by Shekhar Suman) son Vishal played by Adhyayan Suman, confirms director Anand Mahendroo,who feels the advantage point is the familiarity the audience relates to. Dekh Bhai Dekh will be a romantic comedy and revolve around the lives of the Diwan family, confirms Mahendroo,adding,We have tried to include more nuances like song and dance,without which a Bollywood film is incomplete. Adhyayans character is that of a young boy who wants to join the army. Boys from well-off families usually dont join the armed forces because it is a life of lesser mortals. The story addresses this issue and then evolves into a love story, he explains. KhichdiA laugh-riot,it was a huge TRP grabber for Star Plus few years back. Now the movie format is looking forward to garner more brownie points. We were the first ones to decide on remaking a serial into a film. Khichdi was in demand then and a movie like this (without big names) would work only because of the demand factor, says director JD Majethia. Although the idea was instant the scripting and planning took us almost three years. Majethia insists that the film will be very different from the serial format but will retain the original humour. We plan to shoot in 29 locations around the city. We have brilliant songs and choreography in the movie too, adds Majethia,who will begin shooting on September 23 and will release the film by end of this year. MahabharatNobody can have enough of the classic Mahabharat and definitely not Ravi Chopra. While his father BR Chopra presented the epic on the small screen,he plans a celluloid masterpiece. So how does he plan to feature the 94-episode saga in a time frame of three hours? It will be a six-and-a-half hour long movie and I plan to release the first part on one Friday and the second part four weeks later, he confirms. Although the cast is yet to be finalised,he insists that the film will focus solely on characters and not popular actors. On television we couldnt quite do justice with the special effects. Here we plan to include effects of the kind used in Lord of the Rings, says Chopra. They begin shooting in February 2010 and the movie is expected to release end of next year.
