Philip Rosenthal, the creator of cult American sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, is happy with the Indian adaptation of the hit show and would love to come to India to promote the serial.
Sumit Sambhal Lega will closely follow the plot line of the American show, which ran for eight seasons from 1995 to 2005. Namit Das will play the lead role, originally portrayed by Ray Romano.
“It is exciting to have the show remade in Hindi. I have watched one episode and I loved it. It is a successful adaptation. It is so funny,” Rosenthal said.
“I watched it with English subtitles and I realised that so many things in the original that I hoped were universal did fit into the Indian culture and all the scenes and dialogue that the Indian makers added were also very humorous. The cast is great too,” he said.
Rosenthal, who also wrote and executive produced Everybody Loves Raymond, is not directly involved with the show but one of the writers from the original series is working with the upcoming production on Star Plus.
“We have one of the original writers on the show supervising the production of the Hindi remake. I trust him. I don’t need to supervise. If they ask me for my opinion, I give that. But otherwise, I want the Indian production to be relatable to an Indian audience,” he said.
Rosenthal said when he began creating the series, he did not realise viewers would find it humorous but he believed the real situations and characters connected with people made the show a success.
“When I wrote the show, I didn’t know many would like it. I wrote very specifically about my situation, about real-life family situations. People found that funny and started laughing at those people in my show. I realised there were a few things about the show, which were found everywhere regardless of the country or language.
“There are times when a man gets caught between his wife and mother, sometimes your wife gets angry at you for no reason at all, your kids will ask you to play with them even when you are tired. These instances happen in every household. I think they connected Everybody Loves Raymond with the audiences across the world,” he said.
A huge fan of Bollywood films, Rosenthal was all praise for Aamir Khan-starrer Dhoom 3 and said he was “amazed” by the action in the third instalment of the Dhoom franchise.
“The few Bollywood movies that I have watched, I have enjoyed very much because I love the combination of comedy, action and music in these movies. I loved Dhoom 3. It had a lot of action, we were amazed, and had a good love story,” he said.
