“The laughter of home-audiences will resonate to make our iconic Kapil Sharma Show a mega-hit”, enthuses judge Archana Puran Singh, who will have ‘no’ live studio audience behind her.

Chaitanya  Padukone 

The immensely popular hilarious laugh-riot ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ on Sony TV  will resume this weekend late evening with exuberant ‘judge’ Archana Puran Singh punctuating the show with her famous peals of bursting laughter. The newly shot first episode has social Samaritan star-actor Sonu Sood as the celeb guest sharing his altruistic mission as the COVID-saviour-national hero even as he gets grilled by Kapil and drag-queen Krushna ( Sapna) Abhishek. ‘Keeping in mind the current grim scenario there will be comic punch-lines on  COVID 19 and the lockdown, just  to relieve the audiences from the grim stress and scary reality,  ‘ according to host Kapil Sharma .

Keeping in mind the ‘social distancing’ ‘unlock’ guidelines they will be including several ‘video-chats’ with distressed migrants and  a special ‘video-chat’ segment on interactions spouses of Archana ( Parmeet Sethi),Kiku Sharda’s wife Priyanka and Krushna’s actress-wife Kashmira Shah. Speaking exclusively to me, Archana Puran Singh, revealed that, “The new beginning was an tearfully ecstatic emotional high. So super-exciting to be back on the studio sets of our iconic reality comedy show”,  gushes Archana.

In a  compelled deviation, this time there is ‘no’ live studio audience this time due to the restrictions  imposed  by SOP (Standard Operating Procedures)  and the Govt. Resolution (GR) protocol guidelines.   Would it by any chance, impact the show ?   Reacts Archana, “No, not at all. The tensed-up home-audiences are desperately interested in the hilarious happenings on-the-stage, which will amuse, entertain them and uplift their spirits. The hearty laughter of home-audiences, will resonate to make  our iconic Kapil Sharma Show a mega-hit There is a large cardboard ‘cut-out’ of a massive stock image of the studio-audience sitting right behind me, which will give the feel of the back-drop audience presence. In his usual quirky style,  Kapil was complimenting me,  that  “Archana herself is equal to a thousand-strong audience”.

Of course I can make up, maybe for ten members of the studio-audience. But I certainly can’t compensate for the loud cheering applause and laughter-boost of a 200-strong audience,” smiles the laughter-queen’.   Appreciating the  no-live-audience regulation, Archana continues, “But allow me to add, that  having no  live audience in Kapil’s show was  practically a very wise decision in the current scenario.   Honestly, it was quite scary to step  onto the sets and suddenly be exposed to so many people . That too, after four months of the protective stay-at-home lock-down situation.

But the production team ( co-producer is superstar Salman Khan ) has taken excellent preventive care. There are few people on the set as they have downsized the crew to one-third of its original strength. On my part, I have ‘zero’ personal staff. That’s because I am not taking my make-up man and  my hair-dresser. I am even driving my own car to Film City. At the same time my driver goes in advance to get my make-up van totally ‘sanitized’ under his supervision. Before we start shooting all of us  pass thru the sanitization-tunnel, our temperatures and oxygen levels are strictly monitored. It’s so exhausting to keep wearing the face-mask for nearly 12 hours. But the bonhomie and  enthusiasm keeps the energy-flow going with full force,” signs off the articulate actress who is still remembered for her riveting lead role in this yesteryear hit-movie ‘Jalwa’ opposite macho Naseeruddin Shah.