Anupama: Namaste America
Anupama: Namaste America is an Indian Hindi-language drama web-series which aired on 25 April 2022 on Disney+ Hotstar. Produced by Rajan Shahi and Ishika Shahi under Director's Kut Productions, it stars Rupali Ganguly and Sudhanshu Pandey.[2] It is an eleven-episodic prequel series to Star Plus's Hindi television series Anupamaa which concluded on 6 May 2022.[3]
| Anupama: Namaste America | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Bhavna Vyas |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by | Bhavna Vyas |
| Directed by | Romesh Kalra |
| Creative director | Ketaki Walawalkar |
| Starring |
|
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 11 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producers |
|
| Cinematography | Gulshan Shah |
| Editor | Sameer Gandhi |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Production company | Director's Kut Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | Disney+ Hotstar |
| Original release | 25 April – 6 May 2022 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Anupamaa |
Premise
The story is set 17 years ago in 2005; ten years after Anupama and Vanraj's marriage, when Anupama was Vanraj's wife and a mother to Paritosh and Samar; how she got an opportunity to fulfil her dream from the USA; and how Vanraj's grandmother supported her to follow her dreams.[4] However, some conditions forced her to quit her dream and become the Anupama shown in the initial episodes of Anupamaa.[5][6]
Cast
Main
- Rupali Ganguly as Anupama "Anu" Joshi Shah: Kanta's daughter; Bhavesh's sister; Vanraj's wife; Paritosh and Samar's mother; Leela and Hasmukh's daughter-in-law; Dolly's sister-in-law; Moti Baa's granddaughter-in-law.
- Sudhanshu Pandey as Vanraj "Gutlu" Shah: Leela and Hasmukh's son; Dolly's brother; Anupama's husband; Paritosh and Samar's father; Moti Baa's grandson; Ritika's college-days boyfriend.
- Sarita Joshi as Moti Baa: Hasmukh's mother; Leela's mother-in-law; Vanraj and Dolly's grandmother; Anupama's grandmother-in-law; Paritosh and Samar's great-grandmother.
- Vidhvaan Sharma as Young Samar "Bakuda" Shah: Anupama and Vanraj's younger son; Paritosh's brother; Leela, Hasmukh and Kanta's grandson; Dolly and Bhavesh's nephew; Moti Baa's great-grandson.
- Dheer Bhanushali as Young Paritosh "Toshu" Shah: Anupama and Vanraj's elder son; Samar's brother; Leela, Hasmukh and Kanta's grandson; Dolly and Bhavesh's nephew; Moti Baa's great-grandson.
Recurring
- Puja Banerjee as Ritika: Ravi's wife; Vanraj's college-days girlfriend.
- Arvind Vaidya as Hasmukh Shah aka Bapuji: Leela's husband; Vanraj and Dolly's father; Anupama's father-in-law; Moti Baa's son; Paritosh and Samar's grandfather
- Alpana Buch as Leela Shah aka Baa: Hasmukh's wife; Vanraj and Dolly's mother; Anupama's mother-in-law; Moti Baa's daughter-in-law; Paritosh and Samar's grandmother
- Ekta Saraiya as Dolly Shah: Leela and Hasmukh's daughter; Vanraj's sister; Anupama's sister-in-law; Moti Baa's granddaughter; Paritosh and Samar's aunt; Sanjay's prospective bride.
- Gaurav Khanna as Anuj "AK" Kapadia: Malvika's adoptive elder brother; Gopichandra's foster son; Anupama's college-days one-sided lover; owner of AK Group of Industries.
- Madalsa Sharma Chakraborty as Kavya Gandhi: Anirudh's wife.
- Paresh Bhatt as Sanjay Dhamecha: Dolly's prospective groom; Mr. and Mrs. Dhamecha's son
- Mehul Buch as Mr. Dhamecha: Sanjay's father; Mrs. Dhamecha's husband
- Pallavi Pradhan as Mrs. Dhamecha: Sanjay's mother; Mr. Dhamecha's wife
- Anup Pal as Vanraj's boss
- Shilpa Kataria Singh as Vanraj's boss's wife
- Pragati Mehra as Dr. Pragati Mehra: Anupama's gynaecologist
- Riyaz Panjwani as Mr. Dholakia: Vanraj's colleague.
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | Length (Minutes) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Anupama surprises Vanraj" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 25 April 2022 | 24 minutes | |
| Anupama Joshi Shah is a simple Gujarati homemaker married to Vanraj Shah and mother of two sons- Paritosh and Samar. She is an excellent Kathak dancer and has a great passion for dance so do her younger son Samar. But her mother-in-law always despises her for her passion towards dance but her father-in-law and grandmother-in-law support her. Soon Vanraj's calls him to attend a family party organised for all employees of the company where he can be promoted for the USA project and asks him to bring Anupama along. But he makes excuses to bring her as he thinks she is just mere housewife who can't be taken out of house. But on Moti Baa's encouragement Anupama agrees to surprise him. | ||||||
| 2 | "Anupama's American Opportunity" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 26 April 2022 | 23 minutes | |
| After Moti Baa convinces him, Vanraj takes Anupama to his colleague party. There everyone is stunned by her simplicity, beauty and dancing skills. Vanraj's boss's wife decides to take Anupama to USA as a part of her program to promote Indian Culture unaware of his true nature that he actually thinks wife as domestic material. This surprises him because his promotion and US trip are postponed. Samar, Paritosh, Dolly, Hasmukh and Moti Baa rejoice learning the same while Leela and Vanraj become jealous. Soon Vanraj gets a message from his college-days girlfriend Ritika who chose her career over him that she will return to India for some work and plans to meet him. | ||||||
| 3 | "Will Vanraj sabotage Anupama's dream?" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 27 April 2022 | 22 minutes | |
| Moti Baa explains Anupamaa the importance of trust, support and mutual love and understanding as well as importance of self-love and self-respect for a healthy relationship by giving her and her husband's example that he always supported her, Leela and Hasmukh's example that Leela never values Hasmukh and Vanraj and Anupama's example how Vanraj never values her. Anupama thinks that Vanraj respects her dreams but he plans to crush her dreams by keeping her as housewife only. The next day as Anupama prepares to record an audition video Leela taunts her and Samar also expresses his desire to become a dancer but Vanraj taunts that "Boys Never Dance". However Moti Baa supports the mother-son duo to follow their dreams. However Vanraj decides to not forward the audition cassette to his boss's wife and goes to meet his college-days girlfriend Ritika. | ||||||
| 4 | "The Past knocks Vanraj's Door" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 28 April 2022 | 24 minutes | |
| Dolly teaches English to Anupama but she worries about her kids and Dolly promises to keep a good care of them. Meanwhile Vanraj meets his college-days girlfriend Ritika, now a wife to Ravi and recalls his failed love story with her in 1990s. A college student Vanraj belonging to a middle-class family and a rich fashionista student Ritika were deeply in love with each other. However when Vanraj repeatedly involves his family in their talks, this irritated her. As their love story progressed and they found corporate jobs, Ritika revealed that she wants to live in a nuclear family and continue her rich lifestyle, upsetting Vanraj. However things didn't worked well as Ritika agreed to marry her father's NRI friend's son Ravi to continue her lifestyle and asks Vanraj to move on. And Ritika marries Ravi and Vanraj marries Anupama. However she realized that she can't forget Vanraj and decides to divorce Ravi to marry Vanraj and asks him to divorce Anupama also. But since he is jealous that Anupama will fulfil her dreams Vanraj refuses to bend upon Ritika's wish and decides to crush Anupama's dreams. | ||||||
| 5 | "Anupama Meets Ritika" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 29 April 2022 | 22 minutes | |
| Vanraj returns his home by declining his boss's order to give Anupama's audition cassette and Ritika's request to divorce Anupama and starts misbehaving with her for wearing his perfume. However Moti Baa scolds him for this and makes him apologize Anupama and his boss also informs him that his wife sent colleague party's CD as audition cassette infuriating him. Soon Ritika comes tonhis home to meet his whole family as Vanraj's "friend" and to make her feel jealous he starts praising Anupama. However Leela notices this and warns him to break all ties with Ritika for the sake of his married life and his sons. To his dismay, his boss informs him that Anupama has been selected for his wife's project to spread Indian culture in the USA. | ||||||
| 6 | "A Sweet Surprise for Anupama" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 30 April 2022 | 23 minutes | |
| Anupama is excited to learn about her selection while Ritika sees it as an opportunity to get closer to Vanraj. While Vanraj goes to drop Ritika and she tries to come closer to him again, Anupama expresses her love towards Vanraj through a poetry. However Vanraj refuses to come back to Ritika on his obsession to crush Anupama's dreams and Moti Baa warns Anupama about Ritika's intentions but she expresses her faith on Vanraj and tells about Anuj about whom she listened from Devika and considers him as Devika's best-friend. Later Leela and Vanraj schemes up to crush Anupama's dreams while Vanraj juggles up between his feelings for both women. | ||||||
| 7 | "A Romantic Night" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 2 May 2022 | 24 minutes | |
| Vanraj reflects upon Leela's words to stop Anupama and becomes intimate with her to impregnate her for the third time by faking his love. However Anupama thinks that he loves her and starts taking English classes by Dolly to give interview for visa meanwhile Vanraj also becomes dual-minded to resume his relationship with Ritika again and waits for Anupama's pregnancy results to stop her. The story takes a leap of twenty days and Leela invites Sanjay Dhamecha, a prospective groom for Dolly along with his family (who are unaware of her intentions) to finalise Dolly and Sanjay's relationship. Initially everyone thinks that Leela genuinely forgot that she invited Dhamechas for Dolly's relationship but her truth comes out in front of Hasmukh and Moti Baa. Anupama starts showing signs of her third pregnancy while Dolly agrees for her Sanjay for the simple and supporting nature of Sanjay and his parents for her studies and vice-versa and they agrees for their marriage the coming month making Anupama worried as also needs to go USA the coming month. Dhamechas think that Leela also supports Anupama and she leaves for visa interview with Hasmukh however they end up stuck in a traffic jam. | ||||||
| 8 | "Good News or Bad News?" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 3 May 2022 | 23 minutes | |
| Anupama decides to walk to a visa interview. However a girl dressed up as Lord Krishna drops her on her scooty. There Anupama becomes nervous due to English and thinks that she failed in the interview making her supporters sad and Vanraj and Leela happy. Dolly also gives her consent to marry Sanjay and Vanraj and Leela manipulates Anupama by saying that now they will be together for Dolly's marriage. Vanraj who thinks that Anupama won't fulfil her her dreams gets over cloud nine and tries to deceive his boss but he doubts his intentions. The story takes a leap of two weeks and it is shown that Dolly's marriage preparations are on full swing however Anupama feels sad on seeing her previous preparations to go to the USA and Samar encourages her as he can't see tears in his mother's eyes(in the similar way the grown up version of Samar do in original series). But she falls unconscious and Moti Baa takes her to the gynaecologist. While Leela fumes because Anupama went to a gynaecologist (as usual, envying her) and the visa being issued in her name Vanraj visits Ritika's house who is now obsessed with him and urges him to shift with her to USA. But Vanraj denies to continue his obsession to control Anupama and is angered when his boss informs that Anupama has been issued a visa on her name. Anupama's gynaecologist reveals that she is pregnant for the third time and the latter wishes for a baby girl and gynaec assures that she can dance and travel in pregnancy. Meanwhile Leela schemes up to destroy Anupama's visa by giving it to Paritosh and Samar. | ||||||
| 9 | "Caught!" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 4 May 2022 | 24 minutes | |
| Anupama informs Vanraj about her pregnancy and he becomes happy by learning that this baby can be a baby girl. While Leela's plan backfires to destroy Anupama's passport via Paritosh's hands she tells something shocking to Dolly after she saves Anupama's passport. Gynaec informs Vanraj that Anupama can dance and travel in pregnancy but he manipulates his boss by saying that Anupama's pregnancy is complicated hence she can't come or dance. Leela is happy thinking that Anupama won't be able to fulfil her dreams but Dolly feels uneasy about what Leela told her. On enquiring Leela bluntly lies that she's just sad for her life without her parental family after marriage but Moti Baa suspects foul play. The transgender community blesses Anupama to have a baby girl. Anupama feels bad thinking that her passport didn't issued and she won't be able to make herself feel proud in front of her children's eyes and shares her pain with Moti Baa. But she encourages Anupama. While Anupama decides to decorate her room from Samar and Paritosh's clothes when they were babies Leela warns Vanraj to forget Ritika and stop meeting her as Anupama is his wife and he has three children. But Anupama discovers Vanraj and Leela's plot to stop her as she finds her passport with visa in Vanraj's bag. Vanraj thinks that Anupama will not be able to find her passport and brings a Gajra for her but is surprised to see a passport in her hand. | ||||||
| 10 | "Anupama has an Outburst" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 5 May 2022 | 24 minutes | |
| As Vanraj see Anupama's passport in her hand he bluntly lies that he didn't know it arrived and says he was clueless how it landed up in his bag. Next day Anupama has an outburst after Vanraj and Leela tags her a Devi by saying she sacrificed her dreams for family and baby. Vanraj even bluntly lies that Anupama's pregnancy is complicated but she confronts him after revealing that her gynaecologist personally informed her that the pregnancy is normal and she can travel as well as dance. Anupama feels digusted over how her own husband and mother-in-law plotted to shatter her dreams. Leela defends her act by saying that whatever she did is for family with her right as mother-in-law(for her thinking that if daughter-in-law steps out then whole family will shatter). Vanraj defends her after Moti Baa's confrontation regarding the same. However a shattered Anupama breaks her Ghunghroo indicating that she broke her dreams by her her own hands for the sake of family. Later Vanraj fakes his love again by saying that whatever he and Leela did was just for her own safety. But Anupama realizes that whatever Vanraj did on audition night wasn't love but a planned intimacy/marital rape as it was against her will just to stop her and crush her dreams to which Vanraj stands shocked. | ||||||
| 11 | "Family First" | Romesh Kalra | Bhavna Vyas | 6 May 2022 | 24 minutes | |
Production
Development
Rajan Shahi the producer of Anupamaa announced to make a prequel web series to Star Plus TV series Anupamaa.[3]
Casting
Though most of the cast from original series were retained including Rupali Ganguly, Sudhanshu Pandey,[7] Arvind Vaidya, Alpana Buch, Shekhar Shukla, Ekta Saraiya and Paresh Bhatt[8] reprising their original roles as Anupama, Vanraj, Hasmukh, Leela, Jignesh, Dolly and Sanjay, respectively. Actors Paras Kalnawat and Ashish Mehrotra playing Samar and Paritosh respectively were not cast for the series due to their characters being portrayed as younger kids. Thus their roles passed on to child actors Vidhvaan Sharma and Dheer Bhanushali respectively.[9] Muskaan Bamne playing Pakhi was also excluded from the cast because of her character yet to be born. While actress Madalsa Sharma Chakraborty's character Kavya Gandhi was replaced by a new character, Ritika, played by Puja Banerjee,[10] Nidhi Shah's role Kinjal was eliminated from the series. Actress Sarita Joshi was cast to play Hasmukh's mother.[11][12] Later it was confirmed that Gaurav Khanna will reprise his original role of Anuj Kapadia.[13] In further episodes Mehul Buch and Pallavi Pradhan, from the producer's other TV series, Woh Toh Hai Albelaa, are revealed to be cast as Sanjay's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dhamecha. Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai actress Pragati Mehra was seen playing the role of gynaecologist. Madalsa Sharma Chakraborty was also seen as Kavya in the last episode.
Filming
The series has been shot on the original sets of Anupamaa with some changes in Film City, Mumbai.[9]
Broadcast
It is an eleven-episode series which premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 25 April 2022, with each episode being uploaded daily.[6][14]
Reception
Arushi Jain of Indian Express wrote "I feel the show is only an extension of what we saw in the first six months of its televised version: it tells you what all Anupama ‘jheloed’ in her marriage with Vanraj. Only this time, Ganguly has kept Anupama chirpy and lively, but she also delivers enough sad-but-c’est-la-vie expressions into the camera".[15]
References
- "See why Paras, Ashish, Nidhi, Madalsa etc. the main cast of "Anupamaa" aren't part of it's prequel". Amar Ujala (in Hindi). Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- "Rupali Ganguly all set to make her OTT debut with her ongoing hit show Anupamaa's prequel web series titled "Anupamaa: Namaste America". Know the details inside". Jagran English. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- "Rupali Ganguly's 11 episode Anupamaa prequel to premiere on Disney+ Hotstar". India Today. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- "Check out the quirky and savage Sarita Joshi aka Moti Baa and Rupali Ganguly's new avatar as a young Anupamaa in brand new promos of Anupamaa prequel Anupamaa: Namaste America". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
- ""Anupamaa:Namaste America":Know the story and cast of your favourite show Anupamaa's prequel whether your favourite characters will be seen or will be eliminated". Times Now Hindi (in Hindi). Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- "Anupama Namaste America teaser: Rupali Ganguly sets out on a journey to fulfil her dreams, leaves a sulking Sudhanshu Pandey behind". The Indian Express. 19 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- "Anupama Namaste America Promo: Rupali Ganguly and Sudhanshu Pandey's Younger Look Leave Fans Excited". News18. 18 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- "Know more about Anupamaa's prequel Anupamaa: Namaste America cast". Times Now Hindi (in Hindi). Retrieved 17 April 2022.
- "Have a look at exclusive pictures from same yet different sets of Anupamaa's prequel web series Anupamaa:Namaste America". India Today. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- "Puja Banerjee joins the cast of "Anupamaa:Namaste America" as Vanraj's ex-girlfriend Ritika". India Today. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- "Sarita Joshi to play Moti Baa in "Anupamaa:Namaste America"". The Tribune. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
- Bureau, The Hindu (1 April 2022). "New on Disney+ Hotstar in April: 'Better Nate Than Ever,' 'Death on the Nile' and more". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ""Anupamaa:Namaste America" is all set to launch. Know the premise story of your favourite show Anupamaa's prequel web series". Times Now Hindi (in Hindi). Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- "Anupamaa prequel "Anupamaa: Namaste America" gets highly appreciated soon after the release of first episode. Know more details inside". Zee News Hindi (in Hindi). Retrieved 25 April 2022.
- "Anupama Namaste America first impression: Only for the die-hard Anupama fans". The Indian Express. 26 April 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
External links
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