In 2006, 20 years after it was first shown, Malgudi Days was revived by film director Kavitha Lankesh. Kavitha Lankesh: Its stories evoke simple, beautiful feelings He died in a road accident in 1986, the year it was shown on national television. Shankar shot 39 episodes of Malgudi Days. That’s how we began shooting,” says Arundhati. “He was so convinced that he said he didn’t want to see anymore work and was confident of Shankar’s abilities. When the team showed him the first episode, he liked the way Shankar had handled it. We worked very hard to make it acceptable to Narayan,” she says. We put it all together to match the period. The bed cover, with a big circle in the centre, became the dress for the bull in the flashback sequence. “We didn’t have an art director those days, so I borrowed a temple door from Venky, a friend, and temple wooden bells. We shot it somewhere near our house, near an old fort in Hosur.” We did one episode that was to be shown to him. “We were thrilled that we got to do R K Narayan’s stories. When the shooting began for Malgudi Days in Agumbe, the excitement was high, recalls Arundathi Nag, dialogue writer, assistant editor and costume designer for Malgudi Days. They both did superbly well,” recollects Anant.Īrundhati Nag: R K Narayan was happy to give us the rights “Interestingly, ‘Malgudi Days’ had Vishnuvardhan, who after ‘Vamsha Vriksha’ had not done any art film, cast opposite Gayathri, my wife, who had also not done an art film in a long time.
Shankar had worked in theatre in Bombay so he knew the best of the stage talent in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi, and so he brought about 250 artistes over to help him. Bringing that simplicity to life through Malgudi was a challenge,” says Anant. “He wrote in simple English but he conveyed a great deal. I gladly stepped in,” Anant told Showtime.Īlthough Narayan wrote in English, his approach to life and writing was distinctly Indian, and south Indian. He told me that he would go ahead only if I agreed to be an active participant in the process. This was a huge opportunity from the south. Those days, there was only Doordarshan and the terms weren’t financially attractive, but I asked Shankar to take it up because he could showcase his directorial skills.
With more than 100 actors and no hotel anywhere in the vicinity, the village hosted the cast and crew.Īnant Nag: I told Shankar to take up the projectĪnant Nag, who acted in 13 episodes, thinks Shankar took up a big challenge when he agreed to direct ‘Malgudi Days.’ “People will surely understand its relevance and value when they now watch it in Kannada. Within weeks, the village became R K Narayan’s Malgudi. The shooting began in 1985 in misty Agumbe in Thirthahalli taluk, Shivamogga, a place Shankar Nag loved. Malgudi Days had the best of Kannada actors with a strong background in theatre - Anant Nag, Girish Karnad, Suhasini Adarkar, B Jayashree, Vishnuvardhan and Vaishali Kasaravalli among others. The stories were adapted from the works of R K Narayan, a literary giant who had famously trashed Dev Anand’s cinematic portrayal of his novel ‘The Guide’.
It has now been dubbed into Kannada and will be aired every weekday on Zee Kannada and Zee Kannada HD from May 11.ĭirected by Shankar Nag, then at the peak of his creative career, the serial comprised three seasons of 13 episodes each. Set in Karnataka and drawing on the best of Kannada acting talent, the serial had Hindi dialogues as it was shown on Doordarshan from Delhi. The television serial was a rage in the 1980s.
The very mention of ‘Malgudi Days’ evokes pleasant nostalgia for many.