F.R.I.E.N.D.S – in Bollywood

A lot can happen over a plate of yuktahaar food. The food pretty much sucks (dont ask me why I eat there coz everyone eats there for the same reason) , but to divert one’s attention off it, super conversations take place. Just the other day me and my friend were talking about how Friends is such a brilliant tv show and how we could not find a show half as engaging as it on Indian television. It struck me at that point that there was an attempt -a rather pathetic one at that, to have a desi version of Friends. It was called Hello Friends and aired on Zee. Those were the days when I saw a lot of tv and I remember watching a few episodes of the short lived series. Of course the jokes were all changed to suit our mentalities but come to think of it Friends is inimitable. I cannot recall any other cast that gelled so well on screen. Their mannerisms, their style statements,their popularity etc will remain etched in a lot of people’s memories for eternity. Hypothetically though, if we were to make a remake in India whom would we cast?? We thought about it for a while and came up with

Ross – Hrithik Roshan

Chandler – Saif Ali Khan

Phoebe – Konkona Sen Sharma

Rachel – Kareena Kapoor

Monica – Rani Mukherji

Joey – Arshad Warsi

Janice – Mallika Sherawat

(The characters have been mentioned in the order of my liking)

Hrithik for Ross because David Schwimmer is a brilliant actor and a role like Ross needs an actor of immense calibre and also Hrithik looks like a million bucks. Rachel is all about style and attitude – so Kareena fits the role. She would look good with Hrithik. Saif for Chandler was the easiest pick because Saif has great wit, great personality and very good chemistry with Rani who we picked for Monica because both are a little boring. We had trouble picking someone for Joey’s role because Matt LeBlanc looked so perfectly dumb playing his role that except for Govinda no one came to our minds initially. But he is old now so we picked Arshad instead because he carried of the whole “Circuit” thing pretty well and has great comic timing. Ms Sherawat for Janice is as simple as it can get. Annoying,over the top and easily dispensable!

We could also have cameos by SRK (like Brad Pitt) and Priyanka (like Samantha Applegate) etc. Well this exercise just goes to show how much free time we have on our hands these days. I for one really hope no one even thinks of remaking Friends. Its a classic and should remain that way.

PS: Suggestions for other characters like Estelle and Gunther are welcome.