The Family Man makers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK have revealed the story behind bringing the character of Chellam Sir to season 2. Chellam Sir, played by actor Uday Mahesh, has been a national sensation since the new season released last week.
Speaking about The Family Man character and how it has been all the rage online, Krishna DK said, “That’s one of the things that took us by surprise. There is so much in the show, so many characters to take away. We were also pleasantly surprised that suddenly everyone is talking about Chellam Sir. We were like ‘Wait a minute, what happened here?’.” He was speaking to Bollywood Hungama in an interview.
Raj Nidimoru said, “He’s Suman Kumar’s (co-writer) favourite character. He’s been saying ‘We need to do this guy who knows everything.’ Those are the characters you see in movies. He is a filmy character and it’s a grounded show. The idea was to break the groundedness, deliberately. Even he doesn’t look so filmy or cool. If he had been a cameo, like a really big star, coming in a cameo, you could’ve felt it. It would have been very very jarring. It wouldn’t have worked at all.”
“But such a loveable uncle, that whole aura of him, who is wise and calm, doesn’t change anything. He does this little thing (using and disposing multiple cellphones)… we were just excited to do it that way. Some people said, isn’t it convenient that he has also the answers. Think about it, Srikanth would have solved it even without Chellam… It was a big risk, in a grounded show,” he added.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Uday, too, said that he was surprised by the reaction he got. “I am as surprised as everyone. None of us expected that it would become such a sensation on the internet. But, something about that character has clicked with the audience.”
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“A few months after my audition, I got a call from the makers. They offered me Chellam’s role. Since the first season of The Family Man was a hit, I wanted to be do season two. So I took on the role,” he added.
The Family Man stars Manoj Bajpayee in the lead with Samantha Akkinenni. There are also Priyamani, Sharad Kelkar and other actors.