Disney+Hotstar’s latest series Showtime feels a lot like its other recent show, Karmma Calling. Both are dramas set in the corridors of power and wealth, with dollops of glamour and glitz thrown in. Created by Sumit Roy (screenplay writer of Rocky Aur Rocky Kii Prem Kahani and Gehraiyaan), Showtime picks some predictable themes related to Bollywood, with Emraan Hashmi as the surprise element.
Emraan Hashmi is an absolute treat
Since Tiger 3, Emraan Hashmi has been having a blast playing menacing characters. In Showtime, Emraan is back as Raghu — the name is a nod to his character from his 2003 debut film, Vikram Bhatt’s Footpath. Raghu is the arrogant, intimidating, self-serving and power-seeking heir of Viktory Films, founded by his father Viktor Khanna (Naseeruddin Shah), with whom he is mostly at loggerheads about how to grow the business. He loathes his father so much that he prefers not to meet him in person.
That Emraan is enjoying playing the character to the hilt comes through in the ease of his dialogue delivery and flamboyant body language. The sequence where he climbs atop a table after figuring out that his father hasn’t left much to him in his will and another where he scales the gates of a superstar’s bungalow are great fun.
The other key characters
Mahima Makwana plays Mahika Nandy, a rookie entertainment journalist who by a stroke of luck becomes the owner of a big film production house in Mumbai. Mahika takes charge of her new responsibilities overnight and starts calling the shots, making the job of top producers look utterly small.
Rajeev Khandelwal is Armaan Singh, a self-indulgent superstar, who lives in a mansion named Jannat and wants to make a comeback with an action film.
Naseeruddin Shah plays Viktor Khanna, the founder of Viktory Films, who doesn’t get along with his son Raghu (Emraan Hashmi). Just like in films like Masoom, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Gehraiyaan, Naseeruddin plays a man whose past relationships come to haunt his present.
Mouni Roy plays Yasmine Ali, a starlet who gets offers for item numbers in films but aspires to play the lead.
Shriya Saran plays Armaan Singh’s actress-turned-celebrity wife Mandira Singh. After a hiatus, she wants to get back to movies, with little to zero encouragement from her star husband.
Vishal Vashishtha plays Prithvi, who is seen in Raghu’s entourage in the beginning but switches to his girlfriend Mahika Nandy’s team when she gains power. Vijay Raaz and Neeraj Madhav have very little screen time in the first four episodes of the show.
Nothing new
Showtime deals with issues such as nepotism, insiders versus outsiders, rivalry and jealousy, female actors being pulled down by male superstars, clandestine affairs and shady investors. There is no novelty there as Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance, Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3, Fashion and Heroine, and Vikramaditya Motwane’s Prime Video series Jubilee have already exposed the audience to a fair bit of the off-camera shenanigans of the entertainment industry.
The show’s producer, Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment, has peppered the screenplay with a sprinkling of stars in guest appearances — think Janhvi Kapoor, Neha Dhupia, Angad Bedi, Mrunal Thakur and Manish Malhotra along with directors Hansal Mehta, Nitesh Tiwari, Vasan Bala, Gurmmeet Singh — whose presence don’t add much value. Showtime has released four episodes, with four more to be dropped in June. The format has worked for a thriller show such as The Night Manager, starring Aditya Roy Kapur, but will it work its magic on Showtime?
