‘Friends’ remains, all these years later, one of the most iconic sitcoms with a cult following. Long after the door to the friends’ apartment closed, people have kept turning up in that metaphorical room to seek comfort. Even though many of the jokes said on the show have not stood the test of time, Ross, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Joey and Phoebe remain some of the most beloved characters. But did you know that a Hindi version of Friends had once graced screens?
Called ‘Hello Friends’, the Desi version of the American sitcom starred Simone Singh, Maria Goretti, Cyrus Broacha, Nikhil Chinapa, Anil Dimbri and Aparna Banerjee, reported The Quint. It wasn’t just a loosely-remade version, either. It was a scene-by-scene remake and it aired back in 1999 on Zee TV, running for 26 episodes. This means all of the episodes of the first season were remade in Hindi.
Now, a clip from the show has been going viral on the internet and many are finding out for the first time that such a thing had occurred. “I think I downloaded the wrong FRIENDS series,” an Instagram user joked.
‘Friends’ star Lisa Kudrow recently said that if the show were created today, it would be “completely different”, starting off with a more inclusive cast, reported PTI. With the reruns on TV and memes on social media, the younger generation which has discovered the show in recent years has accused it of having “problematic” storylines, with many describing it as transphobic, homophobic, sexist, and lacking diversity.
The actor, who played the oddball Phoebe Buffay over the 10-season run of the cult NBC series, defended the show saying that “Friends” was a “very progressive” show when seen in the context of the year 1994, when it aired.
Asked what the show be like if it was created today, Kudrow told The Sunday Times, “Oh, it’d be completely different. It would not be an all-white cast, for sure. I’m not sure what else, but, to me, it should be looked at as a time capsule, not for what they did wrong.”
“Also, this show thought it was very progressive. There was a guy whose wife discovered she was gay and pregnant, and they raised the child together? We had surrogacy too. It was, at the time, progressive,” the actor added.
(With PTI inputs)
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