| 24 | |
|---|---|
| |
| Seasons: | 2 |
| Episodes: | 48 |
| Original run: | October 4, 2013 – present |
| Produced by: | Anil Kapoor Film |
| Distributed by: | Colors |
24 is an Indian television series based on the American series of the same name, made in the Hindi language. The show, written by Rensil D'Silva and directed by Abhinay Deo, stars 24 season 8 actor Anil Kapoor, also a producer, in the lead role. 24 premiered on October 4, 2013 on the Viacom-owned Colors channel, airing twice-weekly, and concluded on December 21, 2013. Set in Mumbai, India, the series is a close adaptation of the first season of 24, following Anti Terrorist Unit (ATU) director Jai Singh Rathod's efforts to thwart the assassination of Indian Prime Minister candidate Aditya Singhania, while his own family comes under threat from the perpetrators.
The first season of 24 was a massive success, garnering accolades and high viewership. A second season, titled 24: Live Another Day, will air in 2014.[1]
Cast
- Anil Kapoor as Jai Singh Rathod, based on Jack Bauer
- Of his role as the new series' Jack Bauer analogue, Kapoor said that the character "is also constantly torn between the family and the country. He has an army background which we have maintained and the show will have an anti-terrorist cell like the original's CTU."[2]
- Mandira Bedi as Nikita Rai, ATU's second-in-command, based on Nina Myers[3]
- Mandira Bedi replaced original actress Priyanka Bose.
- Tisca Chopra as Jai's wife, Trisha Rathod, based on Teri Bauer[4]
- Sapna Pabbi as Kiran Rathod, daughter of Jai and Trisha, based on Kim Bauer[5]
- Adhish Khanna as Veer Singh Rathod, son of Jai and Trisha
- Neil Bhoopalam as Aditya Singhania, India's youngest candidate for Prime Minister, based on David Palmer
- Shivani Tanksale as Divya Singhania, sister of Aditya
- Anita Raaj as Naina Singhania, mother of Aditya and Divya and head of a political dynasty
- Adhir Bhatt as Tejpal Singh, ATU's third-in-command, based on Tony Almeida[5]
- Yuri Suri as Gill, based on George Mason[5]
- Nikkitasha Marwaha as Mehr, based on the assassin Mandy
- Rajat Kaul as Max Ferraro, based on Jonathan Matijevich
- Priyanshu Cora as Rohit, based on Rick Allen
- Kiran Srinivas as Dev, based on Dan Mounts
- Anupam Kher as Wasim Khan, based on Richard Walsh[5]
- Shabana Azmi as ATU official Abhilasha Grewal, based on Alberta Green[5]
- Shivkumar Subramaniam as Kamaljit Sood, based on Ryan Chappelle
- Rahul Khanna as suspect Tarun Khosia, based on Ted Cofell
- Aradhana Jagota as Jhanvi Gupta, based on Janet York
- Ajinkya Deo as Karthik Chandrasekharan (A.K.A. Abhay), based on Kevin Carroll (A.K.A. Alan York)
- Suchitra Pillai-Malik as Mehek Ahuja, based on Maureen Kingsley
- Ankur Vikal as Yakub Sayeed, based on Ira Gaines
- Kishore Kadam as Ravindran, based on Victor Drazen
- Nikunj Malik as Simran, based on Melanie (Day 1)
- Pooja Ruparel as Pooja Bharadwaj, based on Patty Brooks
- Bikramjeet Kanwarpal (credited sometimes as Major Bikramjeet) as SFG Agent Pradhan, based on SS agent Aaron Pierce (uncredited)
- Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Raja, based on Andre Drazen
- Shahnawaz Pradhan as KK, based on Carl Webb
- Faiza Jalali as Jiah, based on Jamey Farrell (uncredited)
- Nissar Khan as Murad Ali, based on Mark DeSalvo
- Gurpreet Saini as Mihir, based on Milo Pressman
- Rajeev Siddhartha as Bala, based on Alexis Drazen
- Jayant Gadekar as Bad Cop at Checkpost, an officer of the law who briefly hassles "Abhay" and Trisha for cash
- Guarev Bakshi as Agent Kabir, an agent who assists Jai Singh with the rescue of his family
- Richa Chadda as Sapna, based on waitress Lauren Proctor
- Rahul Singh as Vikrant Maurya, Aditya's brother-in-law
- Additional uncredited actors portrayed Shaina (who is based on Bridgit) and Sahil, an informant based on Scott Baylor
- Gandhi as an ATU field agent based on Bundy
Crew
- Directors for the first season were Nitya Mehra, Abhinay Deo and Renzil D'Silva. The production was also supervised by director Manish Sharma. The action director for the show was Allan Amin, who received no credit for his part on the show.
- Renzil D'Silva also served as principal show writer with other writers Milap Zaveri, Priya Pinto, Bhavani Iyer and Niranjan Ivyengar. Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran were credited as original creators of the material and original 24 writers Howard Gordon, Michael Chernuchin, Lawrence Hertzog, Maurice Hurley, Chip Johannessen, Michael Loceff, Andrea Newman and Virgil Williams also had occasional episodes credited to them due to the show borrowing key episode story lines from the first two seasons of the US version. Sanaullah Khan and Sagar.Bhanushali were line producers for the show. Acclaimed writer Javed Akhtar also penned an uncredited speech spoken by Aditya on the show.[1]
- Executive producers for the show included Howard Gordon, Udayan Bhat and Apurba Sengupta with Anil Kapoor producing and Jessu George as producer for the Colors channel. Imagine Television was also credited as an executive producer for the show. RDP Television was also listed as a co-producer for some episodes.
- Music consisted of reused original music by Sean Callery as well as additional music by Guarev Godkhindi and former sound mixer Mark Fulgado.
- Directors of Photography were Jay Oza and Tanay Satam.
Differences from the original
Promotional poster for the first season's premiere
For the most part, the series closely hews to the plot of the American series, substituting Mumbai for Los Angeles and featuring the fictional Anti Terrorist Unit. There are a number of significant changes from the American series:
- Names, places, and nationalities are adjusted to reflect the new setting. The primary antagonists are members of a Tamil separatist group called the LTFE, inspired by the real-life Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE for short, commonly referred to as the "Tamil Tigers") in Sri Lanka. The LTFE leader, Ravindran, and his sons Raja and Bala play a similar role as Victor Drazen and his sons in the original first season.
- When Trisha and Abhay go searching for Kiran, instead of going to a department store, they search at a dub-step laden nightclub.
- The political story arc, which followed David Palmer discovering a cover-up perpetrated by his own wife and children, is entirely rewritten; Singhania is unmarried, and instead contends with a scandal involving his mother and siblings that is directly connected to the threat against his life. Over the course of the season, it is revealed that Aditya's brother-in-law, as well as one of his family members - his mother, cousin Prithvi, or sister Divya - is in league with the masterminds of the assassination attempt. In the finale, Divya is exposed as the inside connection and arrested.[2]
- Wasim Kahn, the Richard Walsh character, meets with the informant (who takes the place of Scott Baylor) in a local movie theater as opposed to a federal building. When the informant is shot in front of him and Walsh is injured and runs for cover after dropping his weapon as opposed to limping away injured, gun-in-hand. Later, when Jai Singh appears, he manages to gesture towards one of the gunmen and engage in a gunfight together with Jai Singh.
- The Mandy character, Mehrm meets up with the show's equivalent of Bridget but the latter does not occupant Mehr on any of her other criminal dealings, she only destroys evidence including Mehr's parachute kit by burning it on the ground and is never seen again after that while the original show's version had her killed by Ira Gaines.
- The Nina Myers character, Nikita Rai, is not revealed to be an enemy agent, instead serving loyally throughout the season. The Jamey Farrell character, Jiah, is the only mole inside ATU, and takes her own life after being arrested. This also means Nikita will continue working with ATU in season two, probably taking over the role given to Michelle Dessler in the original.
- The make-up and outcome of Jack Bauer's family are altered. Rathod has a teenage son, Veer, enrolled at a military academy, in addition to a daughter. Beginning in "Day 1: 3:00pm-4:00pm," the family's story begins to diverge from the original - Trisha and Kiran manage to kill the assassin sent to kill them at the safe house, while Veer assumes a similar role to Kim Bauer in the latter half of Season 1, being mistakenly arrested for a drug deal and then kidnapped by the engineers of the assassination threat.
- Rathod's wife, Trisha, is hospitalized late in the season and dies during the season finale, mirroring Teri Bauer's death at the end of Season 1.
Production
Kapoor acquired the rights to 24 from Fox and 24 executive producer Howard Gordon through his production company, Anil Kapoor Film Co. after Gordon introduced him to Fox's head of international television, Marion Edwards. In April 2013, Bollywood screenwriter Rensil D'Silva and director Abhinay Deo were announced as the series' writer and director. The series is filmed on location in Mumbai, India.
The size and scope of the production was described as unprecedented for Indian television. Colors CEO Raj Nayak said that 24 was "going to be one of our big scale budgeted shows - as big as one of our non-fiction reality shows," while Kapoor stated that "there will be scenes with hundreds of thousands of people." In addition, Kapoor noted that Fox personnel participated in the production with the hope of replicating "the same kind of work culture and value systems that I experienced during my stint on 24."[2]
Kiefer Sutherland, who remained in contact with Kapoor after they starred together in Season 8, expressed interest in appearing on the new series in a cameo role.[6]
Overseas airings or lack thereof
While Colors does have international versions available on satellite and cable television that air their programmes with subtitles near to transmission date, the show has not yet been aired outside India due to "right issues" that a Colors spokesman hoped would be resolved at some point[7].
The episodes were available online through the Colors website, but in Hindi only.
Episodes
24
24: Live Another Day
| Title | Number | Original Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| "Episode 1" | 1 | 2014 |
External links
- Official Indian website
- Official UK website
- Official Hindi-language trailer
24 at Wikipedia- Template:IMDb-link
References
- ↑ Prashant Singh (December 1, 2013). After 24, Anil Kapoor to adapt another hit American show. Retrieved on January 15, 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Nyay Bushan (November 26, 2012). Indian Version of '24' to Air on Viacom18's Colors Channel (Exclusive). The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on May 10, 2013.
- ↑ Mandira Bedi turns government agent for Anil Kapoor's 24 (30 May 2013). Retrieved on June 24, 2013.
- ↑ Tisca Chopra in Anil Kapoor's 24 - Times Of India
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Meet the Impressive Cast of Anil Kapoor's 24. Colors. Retrieved on May 10, 2013.
- ↑ Kiefer Sutherland to speak Hindi?. DNA India (April 29, 2013). Retrieved on May 10, 2013.
- ↑ Foreign TV imports left out for international viewers BizAsia UK October 6, 2013. Retrieved January 11, 2014