The Buddy Project

The Buddy Project is an Indian television series that airs on Channel V India.The series premiered on July 23, 2012 and has gained popularity, it is currently ranked as the number one show on the channel. It airs every Monday to Friday at 6 pm (IST) and has its repeat telecast at 10:30p.m. , the same day.
The series is based in the fictional, Royal Academy, a once prestigious school which is looking to regain its lost glory. The students are bright but reckless without a force to guide them. Principal Ramanujam has seen its ups and downs and decides on a plan to bring back the best of the old alumni to guide the new. But after passing the Royal Academy , they all are now all set for their college life .
With The Buddy Project, Channel V India is finally converting itself from a music channel to a youth based-GEC channel (general entertainment channel). "They (Channel V) already have three serials, so the challenge was how we can be different from these shows and from whatever we have done in the past. We have seen enough stories of a small town girl coming to a big city. We needed more ideas which capture issues of today's youth," said the series producer, Sudhir Sharma.
==Overview==
In an attempt to regain the lost pride of The Royal Academy and to help direct the enrolled students toward constructive personal and academic development, he brings in an old alumnus – Anirudh Jaitley (Manav Gohil). The underlying theme of the show is that life will always send us an “indicator”. Someone or something that makes us realise who we really are and what we are actually capable of achieving. The teachers whom we criticize so much, help us out.
The second season of The Buddy Project (Now In College) has started from 18 March 2013. The show will now focus on how KD (Fahad Ali), Ranveer (Kunal Jaisingh), Kiya (Bharti Kumar), Piddi (Nikhil Mehta) and Panchi (Palak Jain) are going to adjust in the Imperial College of Communication after coming out from their comfort zone in Royal Academy. Once best buddies, they have now turned into sworn enemies all because of a simple misunderstanding. We can see some new characters too in this season along with the old ones. The main new entries are Avijeet Roy (Manish Nawani) who is Superstar Chandan Roy's son, the cool dude of Imperial and the leader of the Dhakkans gang, and Omi (Samridh Bawa) who is the desi guy and also the one who leads the Chillar gang. Both these gangs have great enmity towards each other and are always seen fighting. The other new entries are Avi's mischievous sister Avantika (Kanika Kotnala) and Ranveer's Radio station partner, Rukmini Sharma (Sonal Vengurlekar) who is struggling in college as she doesn't know English. Anirudh Jaitley (Manav Gohil), who made a surprise entry into the second season of the show, has some tricks up his sleeve to bring the buddies back to together. Will the buddies become best friends once again? Keep watching The Buddy Project (Now In College) to find out!
Yes The Buddies are finally are all together after the successful plan made by Anirudh Jaitley!!
==Cast and characters==
*Fahad Ali as Keshav "KD" Desai   
*Bharti Kumar as Kiya Gujral  
*Kunal Jaisingh as Ranveer Shergill 
*Palak Jain as Panchi Rastogi  
:Jain gained a little weight for getting into Panchi's character, she explained, "When I was approached for the show, the casting director was very clear on casting me for this role as I fit the bill. I have been asked to put on a little weight as everyone calls her 'Moti' in the show."[10]
:*Nikhil Mehta as Pratham "Piddhi" Punj
:*Chestha Bhagat as Babita "Bobby" Mallik 
:*Jatin Sharma as Samar Pratap Singh  
:*Krishna Patel as Juhi Gupta
:**Manav Gohil as Anirudh Jaitely 
:Gohil who portrays Jaitely, had to lose a little weight for getting into his character, and also watched many films based on teacher-student relationship for reference. "I have seen films like Dead Poets Society and Hip Hip Hooray. I have definitely taken a few pointers from these films as professor Junglee is not like any other character people have seen."
:*Raja Sevak as Banga 
:*Gargi Patel as Naina Ramanujam
:*Niharika Kareer as Ayesha
:*Samridh Bawa as Omi 
==Production==
On 12 July 2012, Tellychakkar reported that a few days before the premier of the show, the production house was running out of time to create the required bank of episodes as the show had to go on-air on 23 July as the promos suggested.
The character of the vice-principal (Banga) was to be played by Mrunal Pandit. But, Raja Sevak replaced Pandit after the pilot shoot. Hence, the production had to re-work on the pilot with Sevak, the process of which consumed a lot of time. Furthermore, the rains hit the city (Mumbai). Since most of the scenes of the show were to be shot in the outdoors, it was getting difficult for the team to have a brisk progress. However, the creatives re-worked on the story by which there was more of indoor shoots than outdoors, from then on. At the time, the production house was working on their first episode. But, they were yet to complete six episodes, the number required by the channel before the show premiered on 23 July. Sudhir Sharma explained, “Yes, we are facing a lot of difficulties due to the rains but we are working towards it. Since we have created a huge campus, we were to shoot more in the outdoor, but now it will be more of an indoor shoot. However, we are sure that we will be done with at least five to six episodes by the time the show goes on-air.” The school, that has been created in Malad, has a 35 thousand square feet campus and an equally huge indoor too. The team had been shooting all across Mumbai that also included places like Marine Drive.
Writing
===Producer Sudhir Sharma wanted the production team to relate to the ideas and thoughts of today's youth and wanted to work with people who could think the way today's youth does (the entire team is under 30 years of age). "We want to think the way today's youth is thinking. We are working with the people who can think the way today's youth thinks," said Sharma.Hence, the story of the show has been written by Sajid Ali, who co-wrote the 2012 youth-oriented film, Cocktail. The series has been conceptualized byAnand Sivakumaran, who is also currently writing the story for Channel V's Suvreen Guggal – Topper of The Year and has earlier worked with Sunshine Productions on its highly successful TV series, Miley Jab Hum Tum.===
===Casting===
Featuring eight regular speaking roles, the ensemble cast was assembled till June 21, 2012, and the production team commenced shooting two days later, on 23 June. The eight main characters were selected to be played by Fahad Ali, Jatin Sharma, Cheshta Bhagat, Kunal Jaisingh, Nikhil Mehta, Krishna Patel, Palak Jain and Bharti Kumar.[22] Manav Gohil who is making his comeback to the small screen after a hiatus, is portraying a teacher who has to deal with eight bratty students.Commenting on casting Gohil who is back on television after a gap, producer Sudhir Sharma said, "We were looking for someone who is not old but has that matured look in the face and Manav just fitted the bill. I am happy that viewers are liking him and the comparatively new cast in the show."  Shishir Sharma, who is well known for his role in Kumkum and was recently seen in Yahaan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli, is also a part of the cast. He is portraying the role of the principal of Royal Academy while Gargi Patel is playing his wife.Raja Sevak, who has done quite a lot of work in television is essaying the role of the vice-principal of the school. Initially, the character of the vice-principal (Banga) was to be played by Mrunal Pandit. But Sevak replaced Pandit after the pilot shoot. Hence, the production had to re-work on the pilot with Sevak, the process of which consumed a lot of time.In late September, 2012, Tellychakkar reported that, Shweta Gautam, has been roped in to play Panchi Rastogi's (Palak Jain) mother in the show.
MTV Splitsvilla 3 contestant, Niharika Kareer, had been roped in to play the character of Aisha, Ranveer's (Kunal Jaisingh) girlfriend.She was introduced in the 43rd episode and had since been a recurring character on the show before making her final appearance in the 102nd episode. Minal Mogam who was earlier seen in Star Plus’ Behenein and Sahara One’s Niyati, is essaying the role of the famous rock star, Anya Gujral, who is the elder sister of Kiya Gujral (Bharti Kumar). Although previously featured in promos, she was introduced in the 64th episode.
Chestha Bhagat who portrays the series regular character, Babita "Bobby" Mallik, went on a month-and-a half long hiatus after episode 71, before returning in the 106th episode.
===Episode format===
The episodes come from Monday to Friday and its 5 episodes, from 22nd March.
==External links[edit]==
*Official website
*"Official Star TV website".