BENGALURU: Sima Taparia may have emerged as the most trending marriage consultant recently but this Kannadiga mother sure can give her tough competition. One of the popular stars of Saad Khan’s latest comedy sketch Amma and Shekhara, this character is all geared up to find a suitable match for her NRI son, Shekhara. Khan’s sketch, which is on YouTube completed two months and often features the banter between NRI Shekhara, portrayed by Khan himself, and his Kannadiga mother, played by actor Shalini Narayan.
Answering the million dollar question about Shekhara’s marriage, Narayan says, "Amma is definitely going to find a good Kannadiga girl for him." Khan quickly intervenes, "Shekhara is not going to agree to it anytime soon."
Khan and Narayan came together sometime in July when the duo got a chance to play mother and son during an improv practice. Khan put out a snippet of the piece on social media and currently, it is at around 1.2 million views. The popularity motivated Khan to explore a mini series.
The inspiration for Shekhara came from Khan’s experiences in the US 10 years ago, while he studied filmmaking. "I met many Indians who would visit the US for few months but develop an American accent,” says Khan, who first worked with Narayan in the Humble Politicial Nograj movie. But for Amma, he didn’t have look around too much for inspiration. "She is any Indian parent that millennials would have, one who often tells off the child to discipline them."
The characters may be exaggerated but the duo have managed to amass a lot of love. "The characters don’t have any animosity. Though they can’t stand each other, they don’t give up since they love each other," says 42-years-old Narayan.
This mini series did receive its share of controversy as well. "I was speaking to one of my friends fromKodagu and got to know about Kailpodhu, a festival where they worship their weapons. One of our episodes was on this but we had to bring that video down because people found it inappropriate," says Khan, who does not want to stop his series just yet. "I want to see how these characters evolve," he says.