Feel-good shows are the strength of Hats Off: Majethia

Jamnadas Majethia, better known as JD, started his career with theatre dramas and plays and   has been active in the Gujarati theatre since last 20 years.  The actor/producer teamed up with his close friend Aatish Kapadia and their passion to make a mark in the entertainment industry led to the launch of the joint venture Hats Off Productions in year 2003.  Their first joint production Instant Khichdi was followed by Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai and a host of the best comedy shows on television.  He recently produced the ongoing show titled Bh Se Bhade for Zee TV.  Venturing out their forte of comedy, the production house has also churned out family dramas and love stories and experimented with the supernatural concept too.

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, J.D. Majethia shared his experience in the industry and also spoke about his production company that has made rapid progress since the days of its launch.

Majethia’s works have always been surrounded with an element of comedy.  In this regard he shared, “It’s not just about comedy but we also concentrate on maintaining a balance between comedies and a feel good factor throughout our shows. Relationships, warmth and emotions are the elements which work well in India and so we always try to work around these factors.”

He has produced shows right from Khichdi to Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, Baa Bahu Aur Baby, Shree, Ek Packet Umeed, Jasuben Jayantilaal Joshi Ki Joint Family, Burey Bhi Hum Bhale Bhi Hum, Sukh By Chance, Mera Naam Karegi Roshan, Behenein, Ek Nayi Chhoti Si Zindagi, Mrs. Tendulkar, Chintu Chinki Aur Ek Badi Si Love Story, Ek Doosre Se Karte Hain Pyaar Hum, Byah Hamari Bahu Ka, Alaxmi Ka Super Parivaar and R K Laxman Ki Duniya.

Explaining how majority of his shows based on comedy have worked well among the different genres that he has produced till date, he said, “We get one hour to involve families in our show, for that we need to provide them wholesome entertainment. Creating content like this is not easy task as it takes time; you need to check that you are not repeating yourself. Furthermore you need to have fresh concepts as we know that content is king.”

“It’s not that we only offer comedy and it works well. We believe in doing a variety of shows and being versatile. Looking at the past I can say we did Shree, Alaxmi and others which were not comedy serials.  Would certainly say that feel good shows are the strength of Hats Off,” he added.

Post R.K. Laxman ki Duniya, the production house took a break for a couple of months. When asked to elaborate on this hiatus he said, “Success ratio today in television industry is less. The scope for TV is growing bigger by the day. Initially it was channel loyalty but today viewers have loads of options in different slots.  Now it’s not only channel loyalty but also slot loyalty. We didn’t want to run any show just for the sake of doing it but wanted a fresh concept. Hence, we took our time. Fortunately we cracked Bh Se Bhade, which is entertaining and conveys a message to society as well.”

Majethia opines that be it comedy, horror, crime ,daily soaps or others, each of these genres offer different kind of content and today building loyalty for ones show has become very important.

Commenting on Hats Off Actor Studios (H.A.S) an acting academy with a difference which was launched earlier this year, he said, “It’s growing steadily and presently we have approximately 100 students in the academy. Recently we made an academy oriented film with our own actors from the studio, based on acting theory.”
Mahi Sagar on BIG MAGIC and Bh Se Bhade on Zee TV are two of Majethia’s shows on air that have been entertaining audiences lately.

Given the fact that Bh Se Bhade,  too like his earlier offering Laxman Ki Duniya is based on literature Majethia avers that it is equally important to justify the characters from the literary works and being able to justify VP Kale’s work is what led to the creation of Bh Se Bhade.

Majethia concludes, “Today a time has come where shows create their own audiences and yes I would say it is really tough to execute anything on television especially the comedy sequence.”