The Desi Version Of Friends Is Sooo Bad That It’s Making Me Say ‘My Eyes, MY EYES!’

I have always believed that remakes are a bad idea. They’re never as good as the original. Besides, why would you want to repeat something already made by someone else? There are so many remakes of movies and songs that prove that sometimes if something turns out great, we should just leave it there without attempting a take-2, which almost always ends in a disaster. Movies like Sholay and Don have been remade over two decades after the original release, justifying everything that I have just said. 

But over the weekend, I was hit by something worse than Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag–the remake of my favourite sitcom ever Friends. And don’t be fooled when I say it’s a desi version because it’s not an Indian adaptation of the show, but a blatant rip-off of every scene and moment! Including the opening scene of every episode that shows their building from outside. And, here, I stopped watching How I Met Your Mother because it seemed like a ‘similar’ storyline. Oh, well!

Now, this desi version is called Hello Friends (yup, they didn’t even try to change the title either) and aired on Zee TV for 26 long episodes way back in 1999. I don’t know what’s worse though. Hearing Akram (Ross) say “Hi” or seeing Nisha (Rachel) walk into the cafe dolled up in head-to-toe red (she’s the runaway bride, remember?).

You have to see it to believe. Here is the first episode of Hello Friends that will make you want to barf if you are a true Friends fan like me.

Here’s what the cast of Hello Freinds looked like (with respect to the OG series):

Nikhil Chinapa – Akram (Ross Geller)
Simone Singh – Sanjana (Monica Geller)
Aparna – Nisha (Rachel Green)
Cyrus Broacha – Cyrus (Chandler Bing)
Anil Dimbri – Rahul (Joey Tribbiani)
Maria Goretti – Penny (Phoebe Buffay)

I discovered this show when one of my friends shared it with me. Obviously, I could not get myself to watch all the episodes but I was brave enough to watch the first three. The dialogues, the (over) acting, and everything else has been copy+pasted. Except that this is the worst. In fact, they even arranged their apartment similar to how Monica did in the original show. How dare they? Needless to say, I and my feelings are not alone.

 

Twitter Reactions To ‘Hello Friends’

Soon after people discovered this cringe-worthy series, Twitter was flooded with meme-worthy thoughts. Here are some of the best reactions!

And you thought “coronavirus is the worst pandemic of our time”

“When you order SRK but get KRK” LOL

I bet they’re not happy tears!

The ‘chai peelo’ aunty seems more bearable somehow

Explain, Zee, explain!

Fun fact: In the desi version, Priya (Carol) leaves Akram (Ross) because she asks him if he’d like tea or coffee and that turns into a fight, not because she was a lesbian. Wondering how that converts to a divorce? Well, in Akram’s opinion, if a wife after three years of marriage even needs to ask whether her husband takes tea or coffee, is it even worth living together? Wow!

I guess I owe a lot of apologies to the makers of HIMYM for calling that show a rip-off of Friends.

So, are you daring enough to watch this cringe-fest through the end?

Featured Image: YouTube