Showtime, the new show from Dharmatic, is as much homage to Bollywood as it is a satire of its pomp and show. The show tells a fictional tale of power struggle between two producers and their allies but draws a lot of instances and personalities from the real Bollywood. DNA sat down for a chat with the show’s writer Sumit Roy about how the show was conceptualised and the impact it has had on the industry.
Showtime is produced by Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment and streams on Disney+ Hotstar. It has been praised for its scathing approach towards the frills of Bollywood. Elaborating on that approach, Sumit says, “This show started when Somen Mishra, the creative head of Dharmatic, came to me saying we are exploring the idea of a behind-the-scenes show on Bollywood. One of the first things I told him was that if we are going into this space, I would only be excited if it’s a no-holds –barred, tell-all show. I feel Bollywood, especially over the last 3-4 years, has come under so much media and social media scrutiny that you owe it to your viewers to tell the truth in some sense. And if you are being disingenuous in this climate where there is already so much scrutiny, people will smell the bullshit.”
Sumit calls the show a ‘a remarkable opportunity’ to tell the behind-the-scenes workings of Bollywood ‘as it is’, allowing the fans to make whatever judgement they wanted to after seeing it. The first four episodes of season one were released in April and the final three episodes of season 1 were released on the streaming platform on July 12. Talking about the reactions, Sumit says, “I told Karan (Johar) when the first batch of episodes was dropping that ‘you might have to go underground for a little while’. Maybe, now he will have to go underground again. Because like you said, we have not held back, we have been brave. Ab jo hoga dekha jayega (We will deal with whatever happens)!”
Given that there are a number of real-life parallels in Showtime, one wonders if people from the industry took offence to it. Sumit laughs and says, “What has happened is people haven’t come to us saying ‘was that based on me’, but people within the industry have called and told us ‘that was based on this incident, admit it’. That is not surprising that we got lots of conversations like this. The fun of the show is also that is like a guessing game. If you are into Bollywood, you can piece together what is based on what. A lot of people played along.”
However, he does concede to receiving one rather angry feedback. “Without saying too much, I will say that we got one angry phone call from one superstar. But I will not tell you anymore,” says the writer, refusing to elaborate further.
Showtime stars Emraan Hashmi, Mahima Makwana, Rajeev Khandelwal, Mouni Roy, and Shriya Saran. The show is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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 "A poster of Showtime")
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