All too often, it is believed that the choices of the masses and critics are poles apart. But if the winners' list of the Mid-day and Radio City Hitlist Web Awards 2020 is any indication, the jury and the audience have a strong and clear favourite — The Family Man. The Amazon Prime Video offering, headlined by Manoj Bajpayee, swept the maiden edition of the awards gala, which aims to honour the best in the web world in the year 2019. While the series won the top two honours of Best Series and Best Creator, Neeraj Madhav and Priyamani were adjudged the Best Supporting Actor (Male) and (Female) respectively. A gong in the Best Writing category rounded off its five wins.

The pandemic may have led to the deferral of the on-ground award ceremony, but the taste of victory — though delayed — is just as sweet. Creator-director duo Raj and DK say that the series sparked from a simple thought: What would a desi spy be like? Raj Nidimoru says, "We didn't want to give him cool gadgets or slow-motion action sequences. Our spy had to be from Chembur, eating vada pav, riding a scooter, and asking his boss for a raise. Srikant's [Tiwari, Bajpayee's character] middle-class values are the charm of the show. On paper, this man has a cool job, but in the end, it's a government job. So, we went with the idea of treating James Bond like a government employee. We developed the script for one-and-a-half years with Suman Kumar. Sumit Arora added his funny zest to the dialogues."