Game of spoof

Only a week is left before the seventh season of the popular fantasy series kicks off. While the fans are all set to feel the excitement of knowing how the story unfolds, back home, a bunch of well-known Indian actors are preparing to tickle everyone’s funny bone with a spoofy version of the series. Titled Game of Thrones — The Desi Hustle, the sketch will see actors reprise the roles of Cersei, Jon Snow, Night’s King and Sansa Stark in a funnier version of the show, while matching the whole look and feel of the original GoT.

The parody is the brainchild of Chhavi Mittal, a popular television actress and her husband Mohit Hussein. They run a YouTube channel called Shitty Ideas Trending, which will release its version on Friday. Both the husband and wife claim to be huge GoT fans and believe that no one in India has created a spoof of the series. “We have made spoofy sketches on trending issues in the past too like on porn ban, demonetisation, etc. but not on a fantasy series. With season 7 coming, GoT is a much talked about and so, we took it up around two months back. We scrapped about ten drafts of the script, before we were ready to roll,” says Chhavi, who will be playing Sadhsei, the desi version of Cersei Lannister. The sketch has six main characters from the original show.

The team has attempted to come very close to the original look and feel of the show. “GoT has a huge budget and we didn’t want to do a spoof on it, if were not willing to scale up our own limited budget. To get the Iron Throne made, or get the costumes and wigs ready, to get prosthetics done for the White Walkers — none of it was easy. To get a decent actor to play Tyrion Lannister was equally difficult,” she adds.  

Mohit, the director talking about the funny elements of the Indian version of the show, says, “Even if you don’t follow GoT, you would still find it funny, but the shows’ fans will connect with it in a better way. In our story, Daenerys Targaryen is called Dragaon Ki Amma and Jon Snow is called Jhonny Boy. What if GoT were to be made in India,  forms the core plot.” The piece will be about seven-minute long and Mohit says there can be more episodes depending on the demand.  

Pracheen Chauhan, who plays Jon Snow, says that the makers had to show them (the team) few episodes to get a hang of things. “Jon’s girlfriend is dead and so, no romantic angle is present for me,” he jokes and adds, “This is the first time I am attempting over-the-top comedy — it’s a new experience.”

Chhavi, who has been part many saas-bahu serials in the past, is enjoying her foray into the digital space — “I consider it as my rebirth as an actor and there’s so much I can do over here. Once you have taste digital space, it’s hard to find anything that can satisfy you as an actor in the TV world.”    

From characters playing a fly to a snake, Indian TV is also embracing fantasy tales. Asked if Indian shows will create huge fan following as GoT does, the Krishnadasi actress, says, “Such shows are being made in India because there is an audience for that. Even if they are made fun of, they are widely watched. In Indian soaps, you have to dish out an episode everyday and so scripts are not ready on time and there are last minute changes. But GoT spends years in scripting and production. The day Indian audience will be ready for season-based shows, our TV shows will begin to have more quality content.”