”˜Kahan Socha Tha’ ”“ that there would be an Indian web series from Australia

*Ashutosh Jain taking his mum around Sydney, role played by Reena Mak*

By Manju Mittal

”˜Kahan Socha Tha’ is the first ever Australia’s Hindi web series from Friends World TV- Varuun Tiwwari, to watch under a lockdown period. In light of a global trend, the digital space has allowed Indian filmmakers a free hand to experiment and be innovative when producing exciting content for the online world. The series was released on the official Friends world TV You Tube channel on September 18, 2021.

The web series features Sydney’s local artists with promoting talented individuals. Most of the cast & crew of the series are newcomers and for the first time they have produced a six-episode series. Varuun Tiwwari is the producer of the series with his wife Kamaldeep Kaur taking on the director’s chair. Suresh Makkar is the script writer so also one of the lead actor in the series. The title song ”˜Kahan Socha Tha’, is sung by the multi talented singer and actor Ashutosh Jain. The series’ soothing music by Ashutosh adds to the sweet flavour; and is a treat to listen to. Speaking about Ashtosh’s character and his music, he exclusively tells TIDU: “I am playing a lead character of a Gujrati boy as Adi and the series allowed me to play the character I really believe in and also gave me the opportunity to sing title song for the series. It feels good that I keep on contributing to the society and that just makes me happy”.

The series tells the story of Ashutosh Jain (Adi) Guju boy and Anjan Nagra ( Simran) Punjabi girl romancing onscreen who want to marry each other. The plot of the series revolves around two couples who in their married lives face challenges that come their way. Storytellers are tackling some very important issues through the web series as each episode progresses to the next.

*Kamaldeep Kaur has directed the first Indian Web Series from Australia*

Speaking about the inspiration of web series, Varuun and Kamal exclusively say to TIDU: “It was a great journey working on ”˜Kahan Socha Tha’ and learnt a lot by working with new people despite the series being made on a small budget as they were able to finish it before the lockdown. We personally feel that this was the right time to release it on YouTube because people are always waiting for new content. The lockdown this time round has been pretty uncertain.” Says Varuun, “We don’t even know when things will become normal so we are very happy to release the series during lockdown and feel incredibly honoured that it has had a phenomenal response, not only in Australia, but also from all over the world. The web series has crossed 100k views on YouTube and this is a great pride for all of us to bring it to people globally.”

The series highlights human connectivity, with each character having some history. Furthermore, the story does create an element of curiosity for the viewers. The web series will be through a woman’s perspective but will also show what problems men go through when relationships tend to be complex than what they seem.

A viewer Dr Mike Hamidi from Newcastle praised the series and shared his thoughts on social media: “I watched all the six episodes about 10 times each. A very entertaining web series, very relevant, keep up the good work”.

*Varuun Tiwwari (in suit and tie) with the cast and crew of ‘Kahan Socha Tha’*

The web series features local actors: Suresh Makkar, Poonam Kathuria, Reena Mak, Navneet Leo, Bob Phill, Ashutosh Jain, Anjan Nagra, Sanjeev Raja, Anil Kumar Bhatia, Stephanie Shakti, Amanpreet, Ankur Verma, Rakesh Arora, Dheeraj Panjwani, Vinod Tiwari, Ratinder Kumari, Anand Arora, Rajat Tewari, Harsh Bhatt, Sonal Choudhary Bhatt, Pawan Gupta, Vijay Jogia, Dinesh Kumar, Maxine Salma, Yogesh Sharma, Shashi Sahu and Monica Gandhi.

”˜Kahan Socha Tha’ is a down to earth, simple piece of local production that greets you like a breeze of spring. Having said that it lacks the quality in performances, perhaps the dialogues do not give much room or even provide the challenge to act.

*Anil Bhatia (left), story writer of ‘Kahan Socha Tha’ with Sanjeev Raja*

With each episode worth 20 minutes, story writer Anil Bhatia has managed to cook up bit of a surprise element into it. Season one promises Part two towards the end and will be when time, money and rest permits. Some of the actors are good others camera shy that they don’t even look at the camera while delivering their lines. Many scenes seem quite mechanical as if to help further the story. Lighting, the ambience, actors overly conscious of the camera needs improvement. Curiosity has been created yet the script does not do full justice. Since the actors are already decided, nothing can be done but to go ahead with the cast, some good and some not so good.

Part One of the 6-episode ”˜Kahan Socha Tha’ is available to watch via the official Friends world TV YouTube channel. Enjoy watching this web series from Sydney during the lockdown and your feedback is welcome by the producers.

Follow the link to watch the series ‘Kahan Socha Tha’:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2ZuPzC06fL092x6Xf8CKvH2jUZ8V6U-u

Short URL: https://indiandownunder.com.au/?p=16914