Aug 27, 2013

24: India Trailer

Here's something pretty awesome to keep 24 fans going while we anxiously await our first glimpse of Jack Bauer's return in Fox's upcoming 24: Live Another Day. Reader Silent Hunter left a comment on my original 2011 post about the Bollywood version of Fox's classic real-time series alerting me that the trailer for 24: India is now online! It's in Hindi, of course, but you should be able to follow the gist of what's going on and appreciate the distinctive 24 style even if you can't understand the language. I'm a little surprised that it appears (from what I can tell, anyway) to be a fairly direct remake of the first season of the American 24. I was hoping it would be a brand new storyline specifically tailored to the Indian setting. (Though that Season 1 storyline is pretty universal anyway.) If they continue directly remaking the seasons, I hope a tiger terrorizes the Kim character in Season 2! That's automatically cooler than a cougar! 24: India will air on Colors TV and stars Anil Kapoor, who played President Omar Hassan on Season 8 of the American 24, as the Indian Jack Bauer, Jai Singh Rathod. Bollywood megastar Kapoor (who spy fans will also recognize from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) loved his 24 experience and worked closely with producer Howard Gordon to secure the rights to an Indian version. Here's a taste:

Sadly, it seems unlikely that non-Hindi speakers will ever have a chance to see this series in its entirety, but I remain hopeful that maybe there will one day be a DVD set with English subtitles. I'm very curious!

5 comments:

Silent Hunter said...

1. It will be a pretty close retelling but with some alterations; for one thing India is a parliamentary democracy (like the UK) as opposed to a presidential one.
2. One character of interest in this will be the "Nina Myers" character, in this version called Nikita Rai. Nikita's actor (who you may have noticed sports an identical hairstyle to Nina's S1 do in the trailer) is far more known in India than Sarah Clarke was or is in the US; Mandira Bedi is a well-known model and TV presenter, particularly of cricket, who started in a soap and has returned to a TV drama this role for the first time in 9 years. If certain things don't get changed (you know what I mean), then the Indian public are going to be in for a bit of a shock come early next year.
3. I wouldn't rule out viewers in the United Kingdom getting to see this in its entirety with subtitles. In recent years a number of foreign dramas have aired successfully on the more niche of the mainstream channels, such as the original versions of The Killing, The Bridge and a Danish political drama called Borgen, which I can highly recommend. Someone like BBC4 or Sky Atlantic might well take this; for one thing, there is a big South Asian ethnic minority in the UK.

Tanner said...

That's very interesting about the Nina actress! I wonder if they'll end up changing her character's arc? It would be cool if it airs in the UK and ends up on DVD somewhere with English subs...

Silent Hunter said...

Colors has a UK channel (Sky 829)- with English subtitles! I'm finding out if it will be airing on there.

ArjunM said...

This remake of 24 is officially in Hindi, but there are plenty of English dialogues spoken, especially be working professionals and middle/upper class characters. Plenty of modern-day Indian TV shows and films set in cities have bilingual dialogues. Additionally, the Palmer family is heavily re-tooled, and as a consequence, a few major deviations occur in this show.

Tanner said...

That's all interesting information! Thank you, ArjunM. At least it's not all a direct remake if the Palmer family has been changed.