Almost exactly 4 years to the day Danish Sait stormed the big screen as the eponymous Humble Politician Nograj, he returns this time via the digital medium debuting his (and the Kannada language's first) web series on Voot Select!
The series picks up 5 years after where the film left us off. HPN who has climbed up the ranks of One Big Party due to 'hard' work, now has before him an opportunity to take advantage of a hung assembly. An ever so slight but not so subtle dig at the real life Karnataka Politics looms over this laughter riot as Danish tries to one up his colourful set of adversaries and leaves disaster in his wake.
The series picks up 5 years after where the film left us off. HPN who has climbed up the ranks of One Big Party due to 'hard' work, now has before him an opportunity to take advantage of a hung assembly. An ever so slight but not so subtle dig at the real life Karnataka Politics looms over this laughter riot as Danish tries to one up his colourful set of adversaries and leaves disaster in his wake.
Clocking in at a little over 30 minutes an episode with the hung assembly in the Karnataka Elections as the context, the now State President of OBP, MLA Humble Politician Nograj has Chief Ministerial aspirations. With his party playing kingmaker to Most Secular Party (MSP) and Family Run Party (FRP) Nograj wants to cut the best deal for himself. When MSP's Party President and Chief Ministerial Candidate Krishna Gundu Bala aka KGB, played by veteran actor Prakash Belawadi continues to insult him, Nograj has had enough and he packs all his and FRP's MLAs and heads to Illegal-ton Resorts to 'resort to politics'
The comical escapades of Nograj's loyal Assistant, Monjunath, FRP's State President the petulant Kunal Kapoor who loves TikTok, Instagram and Bangkok, OBP's Secratary Gurudoss, Corporator-turned MLA Azam Khan, the two-timing reporter of Paid News TV Simi Naveen, the globetrotting PM Sahab and the horsetrading offers to Manjay, Sanjay, Dhananjay (MSD) all as Nograj cuts deals with, double-crosses and triple-crosses everyone including the Russian Mafia leaves you chuckling through and through.
Director Saad Khan, armed with potent ammo in the form of experience and the freedom that OTT offers sans censors, and the natural humor of Danish has delivered a series for the ages. The Debut of Sandalwood into the OTT space has a strong showing and is sure to encourage more creators to look in this direction.
Prakash Belawadi, known for more serious roles is an absolute treat to watch in his role as a cribby cartoon as he chases his childhood dream of becoming a CM as he struggles to complete coherent sentences and uses a cocktail of Kannada, English and Hindi. I remember talking to him back in 2019 at a Literature Festival in Manipal about the future of the Kannada Entertainment Industry and he strongly backed and spoke highly of OTT and the creators who are only beginning to enter. If our people show a miniscule percentage of the love they shower on shows from overseas, we have a bright future, he remarked and with rave reviews coming in from all sides for the show, I think the bright future he spoke off is well within reach.
The supporting cast some of whom reprise their roles from the film are Danish-Saad regulars. Vijay Chendoor as Monjunath, Mohammad Ashraf as Azam Khan, Raghu Ramanakoppa as Secratary Gurdoss return to their roles and TikTok Star Disha Madaan and Comedian Sal Yusuf, last seen in Sait's French Biryani join Nograj's colorful crew as Reporter Simi Navin and Mafia Boss Dmitri/D Murthy. Round it off with Geetanjali Kulakarni, Varun Thakur, Tiku Talsania, Shalini Narayan, Anantha Velu, all familiar faces across industries and you have a cast that can make you laugh at the stupidity on screen and shine as they do it.
The cant-miss-it marketing across Social Media spearheaded by the creative genius of Danish Sait and the folks over at Voot Select with no punches held back in throwing shade at the competitors just as the series doesn't shy away from referencing Indian polity while maintining it's ficticious stance is refreshing and one Kannada audience who frequent languages and genres from around the world have been waiting a long time for!
It is as Danish says in one of his interviews, given the circumstances and the crazy world we are in, I am not sure if people will throng to the theatres to come see me. I am not that big of a star. What I can do though, is visit the people in their homes and try to make them laugh as they begin the new year.
And laugh we did, Danish! That, you can be sure of!
The comical escapades of Nograj's loyal Assistant, Monjunath, FRP's State President the petulant Kunal Kapoor who loves TikTok, Instagram and Bangkok, OBP's Secratary Gurudoss, Corporator-turned MLA Azam Khan, the two-timing reporter of Paid News TV Simi Naveen, the globetrotting PM Sahab and the horsetrading offers to Manjay, Sanjay, Dhananjay (MSD) all as Nograj cuts deals with, double-crosses and triple-crosses everyone including the Russian Mafia leaves you chuckling through and through.
Director Saad Khan, armed with potent ammo in the form of experience and the freedom that OTT offers sans censors, and the natural humor of Danish has delivered a series for the ages. The Debut of Sandalwood into the OTT space has a strong showing and is sure to encourage more creators to look in this direction.
Prakash Belawadi, known for more serious roles is an absolute treat to watch in his role as a cribby cartoon as he chases his childhood dream of becoming a CM as he struggles to complete coherent sentences and uses a cocktail of Kannada, English and Hindi. I remember talking to him back in 2019 at a Literature Festival in Manipal about the future of the Kannada Entertainment Industry and he strongly backed and spoke highly of OTT and the creators who are only beginning to enter. If our people show a miniscule percentage of the love they shower on shows from overseas, we have a bright future, he remarked and with rave reviews coming in from all sides for the show, I think the bright future he spoke off is well within reach.
The supporting cast some of whom reprise their roles from the film are Danish-Saad regulars. Vijay Chendoor as Monjunath, Mohammad Ashraf as Azam Khan, Raghu Ramanakoppa as Secratary Gurdoss return to their roles and TikTok Star Disha Madaan and Comedian Sal Yusuf, last seen in Sait's French Biryani join Nograj's colorful crew as Reporter Simi Navin and Mafia Boss Dmitri/D Murthy. Round it off with Geetanjali Kulakarni, Varun Thakur, Tiku Talsania, Shalini Narayan, Anantha Velu, all familiar faces across industries and you have a cast that can make you laugh at the stupidity on screen and shine as they do it.
The cant-miss-it marketing across Social Media spearheaded by the creative genius of Danish Sait and the folks over at Voot Select with no punches held back in throwing shade at the competitors just as the series doesn't shy away from referencing Indian polity while maintining it's ficticious stance is refreshing and one Kannada audience who frequent languages and genres from around the world have been waiting a long time for!
It is as Danish says in one of his interviews, given the circumstances and the crazy world we are in, I am not sure if people will throng to the theatres to come see me. I am not that big of a star. What I can do though, is visit the people in their homes and try to make them laugh as they begin the new year.
And laugh we did, Danish! That, you can be sure of!