New Delhi: A new series 'Bambai Meri Jaan' premiered this Thursday (September 14) on Amazon Prime Video. The series transports viewers to the underworld of 1970s Bombay, a city where gang warfare, violence, and betrayal are common. The cast of ‘Bambai Meri Jaan’, Nivedita Bhattacharya, Kritika Kamra, Avinash Tiwary along with creators Shujaat Saudagar and Rensil D’Silva, talked to ABPLive about their crime drama. According to the makers, people are not ready for what is coming their way.
Kay Kay Menon plays one of the major roles in 'Bambai Meri Jaan' along with wife Nivedita Bhattacharya, who is also playing his on-screen wife. Speaking about her role, Nivedita said, I am playing the character of Sakina Kadri, who is the wife of Ismail Kadri (a righteous cop) and the mother of Dara Kadri who takes the other path.”
She called her experience of working with Kay Kay ‘wonderful’. She said, “To have someone of Kay Kay’s calibre and to collaborate with him is great because he's so invested in a story not only in his own part but the larger picture. Hence, it always helps to be his co-actor and it has been a fantastic collaboration. We've had a good give-and-take as actors.”
Avinash Tiwary also described his role in 'Bambai Meri Jaan', saying, “I am playing a guy called Dara Kadri, who starts from absolute hunger and this greed for power makes him Bambai ka naya Badshah.
Here’s how Kritika Kamra explained her role:
Avinash’s critically acclaimed movie ‘Laila Majnu’ recently completed 5 years of its release. He was asked how he sees his journey. Avinash replied, “The journey has been wonderful. I am honestly privileged that I got this opportunity to do the ‘Greatest lover of all times’ to probably the ‘Greatest gangster of all times’. I just hope that I have been able to deliver it well.”
‘Bambai Meri Jaan’ is set in the 70s. Shujaat Saudagar and Rensil D’Silva, who created the show, were asked about the process to make it look believable.
Shujaat explained, “There were two facets to it, one is the physical aspect of it and one is the spirit of the city that needs to be drawn out that obviously came from the screenplay. The team wrote the story set in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It spans over three decades and the translation to the visual world entailed a lot of detailing and a lot of hard work.”
He added, “I've given the audiences an immersive experience to transport them whether it was with the costumes, the lingo or that particular social strata. My production designers, costume stylists, hair and makeup, and photographer - everyone came together. We did take care of meticulously designing the entire set. We shot a large part of it there because Mumbai in the present day is really developed and it's difficult to shoot a period piece there.”
Rensil said, “The Bombay in that time period no longer exists now. You have to rely on the research, but as far as bringing it to life - you have to construct it. If you go to South Bombay today, the world has changed. We were very lucky we had Amazon and Excel behind us so that you could build this mini city with the period detail and production design. It was quite a set to see, you could actually walk through it.”
'Bambai Meri Jaan' is a binge-worthy series available on Amazon Prime Video.