Aarya (TV series)

Aarya is an Indian crime drama web television series co-created by Ram Madhvani and Sandeep Modi based on the Dutch drama series Penoza by Pieter Bart Korthuis for Hotstar's label Hotstar Specials starring Sushmita Sen in the titular role.[3] The show is produced by Endemol Shine India and Madhavani's Ram Madhavani Films.[4] The series[5] is co-directed by Ram Madhvani , Sandeep Modi and Vinod Rawat which was released on 19 June 2020.[6]

Aarya
Promotional poster
Genre	Crime Drama
Created by	Ram Madhvani[1] Sandeep Modi
Based on	Penoza[2] by Pieter Bart Korthuis
Written by	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary
Directed by	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat
Starring	Sushmita Sen
Composer(s)	Vishal Khurana
Country of origin	India
Original language(s)	Hindi
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	9 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Vinod Iyer Sia Bhuyan Rhea Prabhu Nikhil Madhok Ranjana Mitra Karn Gupta
Producer(s)	Ram Madhvani Amita Madhvani Endemol Shine India
Production location(s)	India
Cinematography	Harshvir Oberai
Editor(s)	Khushboo Raj Abhimanyu Chaudhary
Running time	50- 59 min
Production company(s)	Ram Madhavani Films Endemol Shine Group
Distributor	Star India
Release
Original network	Hotstar
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Original release	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
Chronology
Related shows	Penoza Red Widow

Cast

• Sushmita Sen[7] as Aarya Sareen, Tej's wife and Aaru, Veer and Adi's mother
• Chandrachur Singh[8] as Tej Sareen, Aarya's husband and Aaru, Veer and Adi's father
• Sikandar Kher as Daulat
• Ankur Bhatia as Sangram, Aarya's brother, and Tej's business-partner
• Alexx ONell as Bob
• Namit Das[9] as Jawahar Bishnoi
• Manish Choudhary as Shekhawat
• Viren Vazirani as Veer Sareen, Aarya & Tej's 1st Child
• Virti Vaghani as Arundhati Sareen (Aaru), Aarya & Tej's 2nd Child
• Pratyaksh Panwar as Adi Sareen, Aarya & Tej's 3rd Child
• Sugandha Garg as Hina
• Priyasha Bhardwaj as Soundarya, Aarya's sister
• Sohaila Kapur as Rajeshwari, Aarya's mother
• Jayant Kripalani as Zorawar, Aarya's father
• Maya Sarao as Maya, Jawahar's wife
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as Sampat
• Vikas Kumar as ACP Khan
• Nishank Verma as Ajay (ACP Khan's Boyfriend)
• Jagdish Purohit as Bhairon Singh
• Flora Saini as Radhika "Rads"
• Gargi Sawant as Pallavi, Veer's girlfriend
• Richard Bhakti Klein as Larry, Bob's father

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Tum Mujhpe Bharosa Karti Ho?"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
Tej and Aarya Sareen have three children Veer, Arundati and Aditya. Tej who was supposed to take Adi to school drops the plans as his partners in the company Aaryasattava Pharmaceuticals Sangram and Jawahar call due to an emergency. Adi takes his father's gun from his car without anyone’s knowledge and point it at the kids who were bullying him at his school. Meanwhile Aarya visits her mother, Rajeshwari. During the visit Rajeshwari denies to attend the marriage of her daughter because of the girlfriend Aarya's father, Zorawar, has even though Aarya's parents are not yet divorced. Aarya visits her fathers house and tells him not to bring his girlfriend, Radhika to the wedding as she wants her mother to attend the wedding. Sangram in the warehouse reveals he has taken three consignments of Heroin from their rivals and wants to sell them to which tej says no to, soon a shoot out takes place where they kills two of their rival gang members and Tej realise that and warns his partners that it is not a good idea to mess with the rivals. However Sangram continues his search for the buying party for the heroine during the wedding. The principle from the school calls Aarya and tells her about the gun incident and calls her to the school. Aarya explains to Adi the violence Is never the answer. Aarya and Tej have a fall out because of the gun incident with their son. Sangram when leaving out to take the sample to the buying party, is caught by ACP Khan with the heroine. Jawahar suspects Tej is behind the incident as he opposed the plan of selling Heroin. After the wedding festivities were done, Tej promises Aarya that he will work out a plan to get themselves out of this mess. Next day while going out Tej was shot thrice at his house.
2	"Aapko Shaq Hai Kisi Par?"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
Tragedy strikes home. Adding insult to injury, Aarya has to deal with an unforeseen pressure from the police. In the midst of all this, Aarya begins to suspect someone.
3	"Kaun Zimmedar Hai?"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
While the family reels in distress, Jawahar warns Aarya about the danger they all are in. When she visits Sangram in the jail, a shock awaits her.
4	"Apne Panje Bahar Nikaalo"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
Aarya is threatened by an unknown assailant, which ups her worry about her children's safety, who are dealing with their own problems. But she finds an unlikely ally in Daulat.
5	"Kaun Chalaega Business?"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
Danger strikes Aarya and her family once more, and the relentless Khan searches her house yet again. Fed up, Aarya decides to take the bull by the horns and meets Shekhawat.
6	"Ek Guru Chahiye"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
As Aarya dives deep into the business, she faces her first challenge. In the meantime, Khan goes after Hina for information, while Jawahar and Daulat get into a scuffle.
7	"Aapki Mummy Don Hai"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
The worst has happened and Aarya goes looking for Jawahar. Distressed, she informs Shekhawat about a change in plan, only to find him uncaring. How will she keep her kids safe?
8	"Grahan Hai Aaj"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
Aarya shares with Veer and Aru the challenges she has been facing, and promises to end all the suffering with a master plan. Will everything fall into place?
9	"Dharm Sankat"	Ram Madhvani Sandeep Modi Vinod Rawat	Sandeep Shrivastava Anu Singh Choudhary	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)
Despite losing the case, Khan is adamant to find the truth. As another tragedy strikes and the family is in the depths of despair, Aarya is left with a fresh dilemma.

Production

Development

Hotstar in January 2019 announced its aspirations to enter into original content production exclusively for the service. STAR India, the parent company of Hotstar tapped many Indian filmmakers including Ram Madhvani[10] for creating the shows for its label called Hotstar Specials.[11]

In 2011, Madhvani started working to adapt the Dutch Dutch drama series Penoza as a Feature film. In 2013, for reasons unknown the film was shelved a month before it was scheduled to film. In 2019, the feature was changed in format for Television and developed for Hotstar Specials[12].

Filming

The principal photography started in December 2019 at Jaipur in Rajasthan.[13][14] Sushmita Sen announced about her second innings on Instagram in the same month.[15] Production on the show was wrapped on March 15, 2020[16].

Post Production

As the show was scheduled for June 2020 release, makers had two months for post production work to be completed. However on March 2020, India entered lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic. All the editing, VFX, sound mixing and dubbing has been done from team's respective homes. Madhvani called it as an Excel Sheet Nightmare as the team has to go through an scheduled Excel sheet to check if they have done that work or not everyday. According to Madhvani a team of 50 people worked on the post production 18 hours a day and had connected through Zoom or Google Chats for the collaboration and lags had been a big issue for them to judge the sound correctly. Dubbing has been also a major issue according to Madhvani as the cast were scattered through out the globe. Jayant Kripalani was in Kolkata dubbing for his role during Amphan Cyclone and Namit Das dubbed at 3 am when all his dogs were quiet[16].

Release

Bollywood Hungama reported the show has scheduled to premiere on 29 March 2020 on Hotstar[4] concurrent with the launch of Disney+ in India through its corporate sibling.[17] However, the show premiered on Hotstar on 19 June 2020.[18]

Promotion

The first teaser was released by the streamer on 2 June 2020[19]. The full trailer was released on 5 June 2020.

Critical reception

Season one of the show received positive reviews. Rahul Desai from Film Companion said, "Sen is the pivot of an excellent cast that, despite a brief lull in the middle overs, maintains the rhythm. The narrative fleetingly dips its toes into the hidden homes of each character. This gives each of the talented actors – otherwise underutilized by the Hindi-film ecosystem – a chance to shine."[20] Shubhra Gupta, from The Indian Express, gave the first season a rating of 3/5 saying, "For the most part, Aarya stays on course, taut, unpredictable, pacey and enjoyable. I was eager to know what’s going to happen next, and that’s straight away a win."[21] Udita Jhunjhunwala from Firspost rated season one 3.5/5 stars and said that, "Writers Sandeep Srivastav and Anu Singh Choudhary build in several plot twists and grisly moments to keep you interested, but the chaos can be infuriating at times."[22]

References

1. "Ram Madhvani on how the movie 'Aarya' became a web series – and why Sushmita Sen is in it".
2. "'SVODs are the saving grace for Indian television production market'". Retrieved 8 March 2020.
3. "Sushmita Sen's Comeback Show 'Aarya' to Release on This Date". Retrieved 8 March 2020.
4. "Sushmita Sen's comeback to release on March 29 on Disney+ Hotstar : Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama". Retrieved 8 March 2020.
5. "Aarya trailer out: Sushmita Sen makes her comeback in intense crime drama". Cinemaexpress. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
6. "Sushmita Sen starrer Aarya to begin streaming this Friday on Disney+ Hotstar".
7. "Aarya First Look: Sushmita Sen Is Fierce In New Web-Series".
8. "Chandrachur Singh: It's been fascinating to work in Aarya".
9. "Sushmita Sen Sings Praises Of Her Aarya Co-Star Namit Das, Calls Him 'An Institution".
10. "Hotstar announces original content under Hotstar Specials; to be out in March". Exchange4Media. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
11. "We are not building Hindi shows but Indian content: Gaurav Banerjee, Star India". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media.
12. Jhunjhunwala, Udita (9 June 2020). "Ram Madhvani on how the movie 'Aarya' became a web series – and why Sushmita Sen is in it". Scroll.in. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
13. "Sushmita Sen shooting in Rajasthan for her comeback web series? - Republic World". Retrieved 8 March 2020.
14. "Sushmita Sen to make digital debut with web series 'Aarya'". The New Indian Express. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
15. "Sushmita Sen announces return to films: 'My fans have waited 10 long years'". Hindustan Times. 9 December 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
16. "'It's An Excel Sheet Nightmare': How Ram Madhvani Did The Post-Production Of His Show Aarya Entirely In Lockdown". Film Companion. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
17. Frater, Patrick (5 February 2020). "Disney Plus To Launch on India's Hotstar". Variety. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
18. admin (17 June 2020). "Aarya Release Date And Release Time On Hotstar". AllTimeTrends. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
19. https://twitter.com/DisneyplusHSVIP/status/1267807339513593857?s=09
20. "Disney+Hostar's Aarya Review: An Absorbing, Well-Performed Portrait Of A Desperate Housewife". Film Companion. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
21. "Aarya review: The Sushmita Sen-starrer is taut and enjoyable". The Indian Express. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
22. "Aarya review: Sushmita Sen holds together Ram Madhvani's show, a welcome detour from soulless fast-paced thrillers- Entertainment News, Firstpost". Firstpost. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.

External links

• Aarya on IMDb