Anupama: Namaste America is an Indian Hindi-language drama television series which aired on 25 April 2022 on Disney+ Hotstar. Produced by Rajan Shahi and Ishika Shahi under Director's Kut Productions, it stars Rupali Ganguly and Sudhanshu Pandey. It is an eleven-episode prequel series to Star Plus's Hindi television series Anupamaa which concluded on 6 May 2022.
Premise The story is set 17 years ago in 2005, ten years after Anupama and Vanraj's marriage, when Anupama was Vanraj's wife and a mother to Paritosh and Samar, she had an opportunity to fulfil her dream in the USA. However, some conditions forced her to quit her dream and become the Anupama shown in the initial episodes of Anupamaa.
Cast
Main Rupali Ganguly as Anupama "Anu" Joshi Shah: Kanta's daughter; Bhavesh's sister; Vanraj's wife; Paritosh and Samar's mother Sudhanshu Pandey as Vanraj Shah: Leela and Hasmukh's son; Dolly's brother; Ritika's former boyfriend; Anupama's husband; Paritosh and Samar's father Sarita Joshi as Kaushalya Shah aka Moti Baa: Hasmukh's mother; Vanraj and Dolly's grandmother; Paritosh and Samar's great-grandmother Vidhvaan Sharma as Young Samar "Bakuda" Shah: Anupama and Vanraj's younger son; Paritosh's brother Dheer Bhanushali as Young Paritosh "Toshu" Shah: Anupama and Vanraj's elder son; Samar's brother
Recurring
Puja Banerjee as Ritika Sharma: Ravi's wife; Vanraj's former girlfriend Arvind Vaidya as Hasmukh Shah aka Bapuji: Kaushalya's son; Leela's husband; Vanraj and Dolly's father; Paritosh and Samar's grandfather Alpana Buch as Leela Shah aka Baa: Hasmukh's wife; Vanraj and Dolly's mother; Paritosh and Samar's grandmother Ekta Saraiya as Dolly Shah Dhamecha: Leela and Hasmukh's daughter; Vanraj's sister; Sanjay's wife Gaurav Khanna as Anuj "AK" Kapadia: Owner of Kapadia Group of Industries; Gopichand's foster son; Malvika's brother; Anupama's one-sided lover Madalsa Sharma Chakraborty as Kavya Gandhi: Aniruddh's wife Paresh Bhatt as Sanjay Dhamecha: Jignesh Dhamecha and Urvashi's son; Dolly's husband Mehul Buch as Jignesh Dhamecha: Urvashi's husband; Sanjay's father Pallavi Pradhan as Urvashi Dhamecha: Jignesh Dhamecha's wife; Sanjay's mother Arup Pal as Vanraj's manager Shilpa Kataria Singh as Vanraj's manager's wife Pragati Mehra as Dr. Pragati Mehra: Anupama's gynecologists Riyaz Panjwani as Mr. Dholakia: Vanraj's colleague
Episodes
Production Development Rajan Shahi the producer of Anupamaa announced to make a prequel web series to Star Plus TV series Anupamaa.
Casting Though most of the cast from original series were retained including Rupali Ganguly, Sudhanshu Pandey, Arvind Vaidya, Alpana Buch, Ekta Saraiya and Paresh Bhatt reprising their original roles as Anupama, Vanraj, Hasmukh, Leela, Dolly and Sanjay respectively. Paras Kalnawat and Ashish Mehrotra playing Samar and Paritosh respectively were not cast for the series due to their characters being portrayed as younger children, thus their roles were assigned to child actors Vidhvaan Sharma and Dheer Bhanushali respectively. Muskan Bamne playing Pakhi was also excluded from the cast because her character was yet to be born. While Madalsa Sharma Chakraborty's character Kavya Gandhi was excluded however Chakraborty reprised her role in the last episode. A new character, played by Puja Banerjee, Ritika, was included as Vanraj's college-days girlfriend. Aneri Vajani and Nidhi Shah's roles Malvika and Kinjal respectively were eliminated from the series. Sarita Joshi was cast to play Hasmukh's mother Moti Baa. Later Gaurav Khanna also reprised his role of Anuj Kapadia in the last episode. In further episodes, Mehul Buch and Pallavi Pradhan were cast as Sanjay's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dhamecha. Pragati Mehra was seen playing the role of gynaecologist. The series concluded with Sachin Tyagi narrating the characters' futures with a poem, leading to the current story of Anupamaa.
Filming The series has been shot on the original sets of Anupamaa with some changes in Film City, Mumbai.
Broadcast The eleven-episode series premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 25 April 2022, with each episode being uploaded daily and concluded on 6 May 2022.
Sequel Anupamaa, a sequel to the drama series premiered on 13 July 2020 on Star Plus, and digitally streams on Disney+ Hotstar. It is loosely based on Star Jalsha's Bengali series Sreemoyee, and currently stars Rupali Ganguly, Adrija Roy and Shivam Khajuria and formerly starred Sudhanshu Pandey, Madalsa Sharma, Gaurav Khanna and Alisha Parveen Khan.
Reception Arushi Jain of Indian Express wrote "I feel the show is only an extension of what we saw in the first six months of its televised version: it tells you what all Anupama ‘jheloed’ in her marriage with Vanraj. Only this time, Ganguly has kept Anupama chirpy and lively, but she also delivers enough sad-but-c’est-la-vie expressions into the camera".
References
External links Production Website Anupama: Namaste America on Disney+ Hotstar