Shabana Azmi and Shefali Shah to work together in medical-thriller; details inside

Mumbai: After working in Aparna Sen’s National Award-winning 15 Park Avenue, the actresses are gearing up to feature in a show that draws from real-life occurrences in hospitals. Interestingly, Vipul Shah wanted to take this subject on the silver screen but its interesting storyline made Vipul Shah opt for Television or OTT platform.

A source shares, “Vipul Shah felt that the content was so relevant and interesting that it would not fit well in a two and a half hour film. Then he decided to create a show that could go either on the TV or on the OTT platform which would do justice to the subject”.

After featuring in Aparna Sen’s National Award-winning 2005 directorial ‘15 Park Avenue’, Shabana Azmi and Shefali Shah are reuniting for an interesting a medical-thriller which will be released most likely on the digital space. However, the platform is not yet decided.

“Shefali is playing a doctor while Shabana will be essaying the role of her boss and owner of the hospital where she works. The show will revolve around their characters and the unique, conflicted relationship they share,” says producer Vipul Shah, adding that he has been working on the yet-untitled show’s concept for a while now. “I’d started developing it as a film but eventually realised that the subject I want to incorporate would not fit in such a short time-frame, he added.

Producer reveals that that is when Mozez Singh took over and started building the show on the original concept. “He transformed the story keeping the concept in mind. Also, Ishani Banerjee, who has earlier worked on some great scripts, has played an important part in the scripting of this,” Vipul adds. The show draws from real-life events and common occurrences in hospitals.

Informing that the project is still in the development stage, Vipul says, “It will go on the floors shortly and will be set in cities like Bhopal and Indore.” While he has worked with wife Shefali before, this is his first project with Shabana.

“I’d always wanted to work with her. The meeting with her went beautifully and she loved the idea. So much so, that she even gave us references for the subject. Having Shabana and Shefali together on screen is going to be thrilling,” he signs off.