Zabaan Sambhalke, in which Tanaaz Irani's character was struggling with her Hindi, now has husband Bakhtiyar doing the same in the reboot
Anju Maskeri (MID-DAY; August 19, 2018)

In 1993, when actor Tanaaz Irani made her television debut as the big haired Jennifer Jones in Zabaan Sambhalke, her husband Bakhtiyar was a student of Std 8. The show, inspired by British comedy Mind Your Language, was about a harried Hindi teacher portrayed by Pankaj Kapur, a hapless bunch of students and their attempts at navigating the mazes of the Hindi language.

"While watching the show, I hadn't in my wildest thoughts, imagined that I would go on to marry one of the students," says Irani, when we meet the couple at a suburban mall. We have intercepted their Pateti shopping plans, but the duo is more than happy to talk about the show that is so special to them.

Back to the classroom
The popular Doordarshan sitcom, which ran from 1993 to 1998, is now set for a reboot as a webseries. Directed by its original maker Rajiv Mehra, it will see a fresh cast with Sumeet Raghavan essaying Kapoor's role, and the students will be played by Irani, Ashwin Mushran, Rupali Bhosle and Meenakshi Chand. "I had auditioned for two characters; one was a Dubai Sheikh and the other a Parsi. Having lived in the Middle East for several years, I could mimic their mannerisms well," he says. But as fate would have it, Irani will play a quirky character from his own community. "But unlike me, he's a bit too flirtatious, almost a lech," he says. "In television you are forced to tone it down. Here, you can say things as is. Expect a lot naughtiness, double entendre and gaalis," he says. For the role, Irani had to shave off the facial fuzz and take off the multiple ear piercings. "I had to look chikna. It feels weirdly naked to be without a beard," he says.

Earlier this year, his wife Tanaaz received a call from director Mehra informing her about the show. "I was confident that he wanted to cast me once again. But when he said he wanted Bakhtiyar and not me, I did a double take. I almost begged him to take me back," laughs Tanaaz. Back then, she was a young 22-year-old theatre actor from South Mumbai with little ambition of making a foray into television or films. It was through producer Viveck Vaswani, also her co-actor in the show that she bagged the role. "He had seen me in the play Bottoms Up and thought I would fit in well with the character of an Anglicised girl struggling with Hindi. And I did because I didn't have to try hard to be bad at Hindi. I was that bad!" she laughs.

Developing friendships
Tanaaz, who was familiar with most of the actors of Zabaan Sambhalke courtesy her theatre stint, believes it was their easy off-screen equation that worked onscreen. "We would all get food from home – I'd get mutton biryani – and then sit together and eat," she recalls. Bakhtiyar, however, is still breaking ice with his co-actors. "During the original series, there were no cellphones or social media. Nowadays, once the shoot is done, people go back to their phones. You don't talk as much," he says.

But once the camera rolls on, the atmosphere is akin to a classroom under Mehra's watchful eyes. While there is discipline, there are also jokes to lighten the moments. "I remember they would keep putting pencils in my hair and I would never know. Also, nobody wanted to sit behind me because my huge mop would overshadow them," she says. Kapur, she recalls, was like a teacher. "He was strict and he commanded respect. I was made to stand outside the class for real many times for my pranks," she laughs.

Three of the original cast members are no more, including Tom Alter. "When we were told that they are pulling the plug on the show, I cried and so did Kapur. We had become family," she says. Tanaaz is yet to see the rushes of the new show. "I can't wait to watch. It's like life has come a full circle."

BOMBAY TIMES (June 29, 2016)