Sachin shares that the team celebrated Reema Lagoo’s birthday on the sets of Tu Tu Main Main, “just a week after we started shooting for the show”

With Tu Tu Main Main set to return to our screens, Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar tell us about the making of the original hit show and what made it special
Divya Kaushik (BOMBAY TIMES; June 27, 2023)

In an era when not every TV show was about scheming saas, kitchen politics or conniving bahus, there was Tu Tu Main Main – the ’90s show that defied the stereotypical notion of the saas-bahu relationship. A sitcom, all about the love-hate relationship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law, that became popular among people of all age groups.

Wanted to work on a simple topic with the scope of becoming big: Sachin Pilgaonkar
Sachin Pilgaonkar made his foray into small screen with Tu Tu Main Main. Sachin says that the show will always be special to him because it marked his debut on TV. “I must confess that there was a time when I looked down upon TV as I was only doing films then. A common friend of mine, asked me once ‘why don’t you make a TV serial?’ I told him that I was not interested in doing TV and for months he pursued me. Then Supriya told me that TV was becoming big and she also mentioned that one of my gurus, Ramesh Sippy, also made a TV show (Buniyaad) after doing films and I should consider it. I agreed with her and decided to do a TV serial. I always thought that it would be better to work on some small, simple topic that has a scope of becoming big,” says Sachin, who decided to take forward the idea of saas-bahu after discussions with his writer Sajeev Kapoor.

On the title of Tu Tu Main Main
Sachin says, “I was already working with Sajeev on the title and he had titled it saas-bahu, which I didn’t like as it was too direct. I shared this idea with my co-producer to make something around saas-bahu. He loved it and by that time my writer came up with this title Tu Tu Main Main, which immediately clicked with me.”

The best thing about the show was that it didn’t complicate anything: Supriya Pilgaonkar
Supriya Pilgaonkar was a part of the show from the scripting stage. She says, “When we would read those things they would read bizarre, but doing (the scenes) on sets was so much fun, and when we watched it on screen it was hilarious. That was the best thing about the show, it didn’t complicate anything. It was all about showing this love-hate relationship between two women in a very simple form.”

ON CASTING REEMA LAGOO AND SUPRIYA PILGAONKAR
Reema Lagoo’s role was also offered to Farida Jalal and Aruna Irani. “Reema was my first choice, as she had only done serious roles till then. She was also my childhood friend and she told me that she wanted to do comedy only with me, as I have a very different sense of humour with a lot of emotional undercurrent. When we approached Farida ji, unfortunately she and her mother underestimated this idea. Aruna ji was too busy producing and directing, and then we approached Reema and she was happy to come on board. On June 16, we started shooting and on June 21 was her birthday, so we celebrated it on the set. These two women, who were not seen by the Indian audience so much – Reema was known for playing Salman Khan’s mother and Supriya was not known much outside Maharashtra – became a household name within a few days,” shares Sachin.