Hotstar Dropped A Trailer For The Desi Remake Of ‘The Office’ & Twitter Had A Meltdown

Adapting The Office was always going to be a tall order. But by simply looking at the trailer it's apparent that the makers rushed into production.

By: Entertainment Desk |
June 4, 2019 1:24 pm

No… no… no. No. NO. Most fans of The Office probably imagined Michael Scott’s face, as they clicked on the Hotstar link of the official ‘Indian adaptation’ of The Office. Originally created by Ricky Gervais for BBC, the show set around an eccentric boss called David Brent (played by Gervais). The show became so popular that it spun a reported nine remakes. The one that captured the mainstream consciousness was the American version, with Steve Carrell playing the central character of the eccentric boss called Michael Scott. The Indian adaptation will be the 10th official remake, and it mines the boss’ eccentricity out of… his Punjabiness. Of course.

One of the most loved shows on the planet that pretty much jumpstarted the mockumentary sitcom genre, The Office has a a loyal following even in India. Adapting it was always going to be a tall order. But by simply looking at the trailer it’s apparent that the makers rushed into production and went for the lowest-hanging fruits in terms of jokes. Let’s not forget that we have a generation that devoured the American version of the sitcom, and has grown up on similar content like Office Office (Pankaj Kapur-starrer) and Naveen Richards’ Better Life Foundation. We deserve better.

Starring Mukul Chadda, Gopal Dutt and Gauhar Khan, The Office showcases a boss’s ‘quirkiness’ by getting him to describe his Punjabiness as Fun-jabiness. It probably took a lot of brainstorming to come up with name of the receptionist, Pammi (played by Samridhi Dewan), whose American counterpart is called Pam.

Twitter obviously isn’t amused at the very least, since the trailer dropped last night. Here are the unanimous, far-from-ideal reactions…

Hotstar : We have an Inidan version of the office
fans : but nobo…
Hotstar : HERE IT IS ENJOY
fans : pic.twitter.com/Wl3uH2Btga

— VARUN P KASHYAP (@thevarunkashyap) June 4, 2019

Watched the trailer of @Hotstar‘s The Office pic.twitter.com/kSZtMseS7Q

— Allwyn D’souza _ (@tribomancer) June 4, 2019

Cringed so hard my blackheads fell outhttps://t.co/1zG99MXgRZ

— Halli Boy (@Pravmaga) June 4, 2019

Wasn’t expecting much out of desi ‘The Office’ to begin with, but this…

Big fan of how they decided that the one thing they’ll do to Indianise the series is add comedy sound effects during the awkward pauses. Inspired call, truly. _____https://t.co/WrqFF07ONt

— Sahil Rizwan (@SahilRiz) June 4, 2019

Just when you thought ‘Chernobyl’ was the biggest disaster you’ve ever seen, Hotstar upped the antehttps://t.co/1EkUHo3md7

— Ivan Mehta (@IndianIdle) June 4, 2019

Hotstar has done an Indian version of The Office. The trailer is out. I just watched it. It has happened. They’re coming for what you love. Rise.

— Sunneith Revankar (@Sunneith) June 3, 2019

Just when you thought ‘Chernobyl’ was the biggest disaster you’ve ever seen, Hotstar upped the antehttps://t.co/1EkUHo3md7

— Ivan Mehta (@IndianIdle) June 4, 2019

The Indian adaptation of The Office has been credited to Anurag Pandey, who has written the dialogue for Hotstar’s Criminal Justice (also a remake of a British original, that was later adapted into American hit, The Night Of) and the Cyrus Sahukar-starrer, Mind The Malhotras.

You can watch the trailer here.