How Marathi TV show 'Chala Hawa Yeu Dya' turned into a blockbuster

Even before we enter the studio at Mira Roads Classic Studio the resounding laughter of rambunctious men and highpitched singing slips past the door and hits us on the spiral staircase leading up to the first floor dressing room and stage areaWhen we step inside theres Kushal Badrike Bhalchandra Kadam Nilesh Sable and Bharat Ganeshpure sitting on ayellow couch in a common area rehearsing linesSagar Karande centre plays actor Amitabh Bachchan who is invited as a chief guest to the fictional village of Thukratwadi for the dahi handi festival PicNimesh DaveDombivli Dombivli Dombivli amhaala pyaari hai Dombivli Badrike sings to a tune Sable provides Majha Dombivli Badrike says is a ditty hes composed as a retort against fellow cast members They constantly poke fun at me saying I need to cross immigration and get a visa to come from there This is a song to show solidarity with fellow Dombivli folks and tell the world how proud I am of it he laughsThe visa jibes are not taken to heart Here nothing really is Almost in consonance with the title of the show the cast of Chala Hawa Yeu Dya is chilled outLR Bharat Ganeshpure Sagar Karande Bhalchandra Kadam and Kushal Badrike break into a dance as Shreya Bugde and Nilesh Sable look on Suresh Wadkar and Swapnil Bandodkar were also presentFor Hindi television snobs Chala Hawa Yeu Dya is Marathi TVs answer to the popular The Kapil Sharma Show The show which airs twice a week on Zee Marathi primetime is raking up high TRPs with an average of 46 and competes with Kapil Sharmas show And its got noticed by Bollywood too While the big names of Marathi film and theatre mdash the Pilgaonkar family the entire Sairat unit mdash have been on the show to promote their films the likes of Salman Khan Sonam Kapoor and more recently Akshay Kumar have also made it to the Mira Road sets in the last few weeksDr Nilesh Sable works on the script during rehearsalOn the setsWalking in the middle of a rehearsal we sheepishly settle down on a comfortable yellow couch which is later transported on set for the days celebrity guest mdash Avadhoot Gupte who has recently directed Kanha along with singers Suresh Wadkar Sonu Kakkar and Swapnil Bandodkar who have sung for the film and Gashmeer Mahajani Vaibbhav Tatwawdi and Gauri Nalawade the films lead actorsTwenty metres away is the studio where a stage has been converted into the fictional village Thukratwadi Along with the regular props of peepal tree and Warli paintings on cardboard walls a dahi handi on a string has been set up perhaps as a cue for Gupte to talk about his film which revolves around Gokulashtami The fictional Cafeacute Thukratwadi is where the shows writer and director the young 30yearold Sable meets them all mdash his wayward family pretend celebs village members and of course the celebrity guests The show begins with introductions of the celebrity guests moving onto a freewheeling chat about themselves and the filmShreya Bugde gets her hair doneIts seven hours before shoot but the cast is still improvising There are days when we just have a sketchy idea of what were going to say on stage Then we sit together brainstorm and the story takes shape at that moment Sometimes it happens a day before the performance says Shreya Bugde the only woman on the sixmember team adding that inputs come from everyone on the floor mdash the spot boys to channel producersThat the brainstorming sessions are hardly serious is evident when Badrike whose mimicry of Suniel Shetty had actor Salman Khan falling off his seat in the show that was aired in July bursts into fits of laughter while rehearsing his Dombivli songThe only quiet one in the room seems to be Sable ironically the host who seems livewire when the camera is turned towards him Sable an MS in Ayurveda quit practice six years ago to pursue a career in entertainment He left medicine after he ended up killing a couple of people jokes Ganeshpure Thukratwadis sarpanchDressed in grey jeans and a black shirt Sable admits hes the quietest of the lot even if he has mastered the art of making people speak their mind on camera People sometimes think I am uptight but the fact is Im always silently observing the world around me It just takes me a couple of minutes to mimic their mannerisms he saysSable who won Maharashtracha Superstar a talent hunt aired on the same channel eleven years ago says Chala Hawas cast was culled from the comedy reality show Fu Bai Fu which aired on Zee Marathi from 2010 to 2014 mdash the one that catapulted him to fame as a host The chemistry is great because we have known each other for years says Sable who hails from Kolhapur Sable says the show was conceptualised after an interaction with actor Riteish Deshmukh who in 2014 was out and about promoting Lai Bhari one of Marathi cinemas biggest blockbusters We chatted about how Marathi television should have a platform like Kapils show to promote indigenous films says Sable whose first guest when the show was aired on August 18 of course Deshmukh Next week the show completes two years with 200 episodesTill now the show has seen actors like Nana Patekar Natsamrat Salman Khan Sultan Shah Rukh Khan Fan Irrfan Khan Madaari and Akshay Kumar Rustom promoting their films Salman Khan was fasting when he was on our show and was supposed to break his fast and return for an hour to complete it He ended up staying back for almost five hours and ended his fast at 1130 that night recalls Sable adding that Khan was so delighted with their jokes that he had tears in his eyes We thought we might have to tweak the show for Bollywood stars but surprisingly they have all insisted on speaking in Marathi John Abraham and Varun Dhawan sat backstage rehearsing their lines in Marathi Akshay Kumar spoke in Marathi in the entire show says Sable who says nonMaharashtrians make up a sizeable chunk of the viewers The other day a Gujarati family came up to me and spoke to me about how they love Chala Hawahellip he addsTapping into the audienceAmong the live audience today is a family of five from Nalasopara who have been invited by the channel We have been watching the show ever since it launched Its a bonding time for the family because after a hard days work you can just sit back and have a good laugh It works as a stress buster says Narendra Khandare who works for an oil company adding that his wife and mother havent missed a single episode of the showBut a live audience often has little idea of what it takes to put a 45minute show together After reaching the studio at 1145 am we had to wait for nine hours of rehearsal before the shoot finally began at 9 pm Its happened that when we start we have an audience of 30 and by the time we end it its down to just ten People get tired of the wait says GaneshpureBut nobody is tired of the show just yetThe team which recently performed in Sydney says the response has been overwhelming People come and thank us because they think their kids who would otherwise speak in English have developed a newfound love for Marathi because of the show says BugdeDrawing the lineIn the dressing room Bugde mock complains that the jokes between the male cast members often get bawdy I might be the only girl in the team but they treat me like a guy Ive to sometimes remind them that Im in the room and they need to tone down their jokes laughs the 28yearoldOn camera however Sable wants the humour to be UA ranging from film spoofs to observational humourA common theme between most comedy shows is the crossdressing and Chala Hawahellip also digs into this humour Today Kadam who plays a music teacher is wrapped up in a mahagony saree with a plaited wig Kadam aka Bhau says all the men on the show take turns in playing women We first tried this in Fu Bai Fu and it worked But we make sure we dont play the same character This is the case with the entire format where we introduce new characters to break the monotonyGaneshpure who essays the role of Mr Badbade who stammers and Bugde who plays Mrs Badbade who speaks fast says characters are inspired by everyone around them These two characters are somebody that Bharat knows We keep observing people around us Tomorrow we might just portray a character inspired by you smiles Sable