The Night Manager actor Ravi Behl on working with Anil Kapoor, comparisons with original British series | Exclusive

The Night Manager is an upcoming spy thriller series that features Aditya Roy Kapur as Shaan Sengupta, a former soldier and the night manager of a luxurious hotel recruited by the Indian intelligence to infiltrate the gang of an arms dealer Shailendra Rungta, played by Anil Kapoor.

Apart from Aditya and Anil, the show also features Ravi Behl in a pivotal role. Ravi has been a popular name in the 1990s when he hosted and produced the OG dance reality show Boogie Woogie with the two brothers Naved Jafri and Jaaved Jaaferi. He also made an appearance in the second season of the Abhishek Bachchan-starrer crime drama Breathe: Into The Shadows last year.

In an interview with DNA, Ravi Behl said that he had an "incredible" experience shooting The Night Manager. He added, "On the first day of my shoot, I felt that it was a Hollywood film being made. We shot 25 days in Sri Lanka, then we did Shimla for around 10 odd days, then Jaisalmer, then Mumbai. It was overwhelming."

In the trailer, Ravi is mostly seen in the scenes with Anil Kapoor. We asked him how did he feel about sharing the screen space with Kapoor, who also began his career around the same time in the early 1980s when Ravi started doing films as a child artist in the Hindi film industry. Ravi responded, "It was superb. To start with, we had never interacted ever before. In my entire span in the industry, I had probably met him once in my life. (Shooting with him) was fantastic, he has been there forever, he is a fabulous actor. Yes, I have most scenes with him, so initially, I felt 'there is AK in front of you' but then we had great tuning and chemistry and we just flowed with it."

READ | Boogie Woogie fame Ravi Behl opens up on present reality shows, says 'thoda aur agar genuine rakhein...' | Exclusive

The Night Manager is an official remake of the popular 2016 BBC series of the same name, which in itself is based on John le Carré's 1993 novel with the same title. In the original show, Tom Hiddleston played Jonathan Pine, the night manager and Hugh Laurie essayed the arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper. The 6-episodic series has even won multiple awards including two Primetime Emmys and three Golden Globes.

Since the trailer for the Indian series was dropped, people have begun comparing it with the original. Reacting to these comparisons, Ravi told DNA, "I feel one should never lose the essence of the original show. It has been a success because of certain reasons. But at the same time, you also need to have a little bit of your individuality to it." 

Crediting the show's directors Sandeep Modi and Priyanka Ghosh for 'Indianising' the foreign show he added, "I think Sandeep Sir and Priyanka have done a fantastic job as directors. I think it's very intelligently done. They have Indianised it beautifully. Of course, there will be some comparisons subconsciously, but that is bound to happen. But once you will start watching it, you will go with it. It has its own individuality without losing the essence."

The Night Manager will stream on Disney+ Hotstar from February 17 onwards.