According to author Anand Suspi, R Balki wanted to work on a project with Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter-in-law, actress Aishwarya Rai, after reading the manuscript of his book, Half Pants, Full Pants, but it didn't materialise. “Nearly five years ago, Balki was the first to read the entire manuscript. Something connected with him deeply and he is still the most ardent fan of these stories. He said that after Malgudi Days, he would love to see this on the small screen,“ Suspi said in a statement. He added: “In fact, he had a plan brewing in his head and took two copies of the manuscript from me. One was for Amitabh Bachchan. He wanted a second copy for Aishwarya Rai since he felt she would enjoy and connect with the tales given her South Indian roots.“ Suspi says Balki had an “interesting idea to promote this on the small screen and tried to put the whole project together“. “It wasn't that he'd direct this. With time, however, certain things didn't materialise and this didn't take off,“ the author said.