Web series have brought a certain freshness to storytelling, drama, storyline, and characters. They are short, exciting and make you addictive. Comedy web series is one genre which always has the most number of viewers. Web series in Malayalam, when compared to other regional languages, are smaller in number and very few of them fall under the category of comedy. Green Room Production’s Random Wekaram is one of the instant hit comedy series at the moment.
Actor Sridevika, famous for her roles in Avan Chandiyude Makan, Parthan Kanda Paralokam and Chempada, is the brain behind the series. “Normally, when ladies get together, the common notion is that they must be exchanging recipes, gossips and beauty tips, and boasting about their kids' achievements. But, can you guess what happened when four ladies met one fine day for a cup of tea and chatted?” says Sridevika.
They were talking about some of the most idiotic things happened to them and having some belly aching laughs. Suddenly, Sridevika had an idea. “Why don't we make these incidents into small videos and present them to the public? They are too good not to share.”
The group members were not alien to acting, writing and making videos. Without wasting much time, they wrote a script and made a video with minimum resources. Thus started the series called Random Wekaram. “The title roughly means 'random emotion’,” says Sridevika.
She says Green Room Production is a team of friends who relentlessly support, act, contribute and promote Random Wekaram. “We made 14 episodes for the first season. In the second season, three videos are out already. They show the tumbles, blunders and goof-ups which happen in everyday life.”
The series features Suvarna Nandakumar, Sreebala Srinivas and Lakshmi Arun in the lead roles along with their families and friends. “I don’t act in Random Wekaram mainly because of the multi-tasking I do behind the camera. I am the director. Besides, I do almost all the work of assistant directors and yes, lighting up too. So, my hands are full,” says Sridevika, when asked why she is not in front of the camera. She likes to explore and work out new ideas in filmmaking. That is why she tried guerrilla filmmaking with smartphones, budget editing tools and sync sound. Music director Tony Joseph joined the team to help them with sound mix.
Sridevika says their friendship is the sole reason for the success of the series. “We argue and agree to disagree most of the time. And that's when the ideas generate.”
Most of the episodes are shot in their homes or at their friends’ places. “People in Dubai are very supportive and once they started earning some recognition, they readily offered to use their facilities and houses for the shooting.”
Sridevika says they are working on the upcoming episodes of the second season. “Our current season has its focus on mother-daughter relationship and is called Hamme. It's a reflection of everyday life in most of the middle class Malayali families.”
