Nikkhil Advani on Mumbai Diaries 26/11: I have always been fascinated by medical dramas (Exclusive)

Amazon Prime Video’s series Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is created by Nikkhil Advani who has earlier directed films like Kal Ho Naa Ho, D-Day, Batla House, and others.

The series is a medical drama set against the backdrop of the Mumbai terror attacks that took place on 26^th November 2008.

We recently spoke to Nikkhil and when we asked him how he got the idea of Mumbai Diaries 26/11, he said, “I have always been fascinated by medical dramas like Chicago Hope, Chicago Med, Code Black, and even a show like Mash, it is a comedy, but I have always been fascinated with the doctors, and frontline workers. The word ‘frontline workers’ is something that we have discovered in the last two years because of the pandemic. I wanted to tell the story of doctors, nurses, and the hospital staff.”

“When we started the research, I went into government hospitals of Mumbai city, and we saw the lack of infrastructure they (medical professionals) are working with, lack of facilities, lack of medicines. But, they (medical professionals) are passionate, brave, and courageous, they are heroes. So, we started writing a medical drama, it was called Bombay Hospital at that time, and then we kept on writing,” Advani added.

Further talking about how he wanted to showcase what frontline workers go through in their day-to-day life, the filmmaker said, “The logline of the show is ‘Those who are meant to heal, are sometimes the most broken’. We forget that doctors have their own problems at home, we forget that the ward boy might be wondering how to get his daughter married or send her to school; these are the problems that Indians face every single day. We forget about the insecurities or disparities that women in these hospitals have to go through. These are the things I actually wanted to talk about, but while we started writing it became bigger and bigger."

"Mohit Raina’s wife in the series is stuck at the Taj (hotel), so Taj came into the story. Mansi, who is a reporter, gets the breaking news so her story came into play. So, with all these things story itself started spreading. It seems like a story of a hospital, but it became the story of a city, the people, and the power of survival," he added.

Nowadays even before season one starts streaming, the makers plan a season two of their series. When asked if he has a concept or an idea for season two of Mumbai Diaries, Advani said, “I have an idea, but I can’t tell you right now (smiles).”