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The Family Man is one of the most successful and popular Indian web series of all time. Over the past six years, the show has garnered a loyal fan base and established itself in Indian pop culture. But it almost never got made, because an international filmmaker was not convinced that the producers, Raj and DK, could mix a spy thriller with comedy.
Ahead of the release of The Family Man Season 3, the show’s co-creator Raj Nidimoru spoke to HT about the comeback, the balance between thriller and comedy, and why Season 3 takes a trip to the North East.
On balancing thriller and comedy in The Family Man
The Family Man is a rare show on espionage that has comedy in it, but it’s no spoof. Talking about achieving that delicate balance, Raj says, “The show is a balance of geopolitics, culture and built-in humor. It’s hard. I remember when we wrote The Family Man Bible. This was before Amazon Prime came in, and we were trying to make the show. We had no platform to come to. Once it was all up and almost ready to go, a guy from America, a producer there, whom he Was given a Bible to examine, said, ‘This show won’t work, don’t do that!”
Raj explains that the filmmaker felt that thriller could not be combined with comedy. “The reason he said it was that you can’t club two genres like this. There haven’t been any detective shows or any shows like this around the world. They’re usually in the action, drama or crime genre. There’s no comedy in this genre. When there’s comedy, it becomes a spoof, and there have been spoofy shows (spy shows) too. But we felt this balance was important for us,” he recalls.
Raj even says that often, he and the editors cut scenes that might be too funny because they change the overall tone of the narrative. He revealed, “We cut some really interesting scenes. We had to cut it in editing, because sometimes what they did was just too ridiculous. It didn’t make sense in the situation.”
Why The Family Man S3 is set in the North East
The first season of The Family Man saw protagonist Shrikant Tiwari traveling to Kashmir. The second season, partly set in Chennai, deals with the Tamil Elam movement in Sri Lanka, while season 3 is set in the North East. Talking about the choice, Raj says, “It was a natural progression after the spotlight fell on Kashmir and then Chennai. We knew where we were going next a season in advance. These were the places that needed to be highlighted, because we have so many stories in every other part of the country, and these were less seen.”
stars of the family man Manoj Bajpayee stars in the lead role, alongside Sharib Hashmi, Priyamani, Shreya Dhanwantri, Gul Panag, Ashlesha Thakur and Vedant Sinha. S3 features Jaideep Ahlawat as the antagonist alongside Nimrat Kaur. It will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on November 21.
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