Not many shows in our country come as close to the level of iconic as CID with its 20-year run and 1,547 episodes. Such was the impact of this show that every child in India growing up in the late 90s or early 2000s, wanted to be a CID officer or a detective at some point in time. As is the ‘case’ with all other long-running shows, we got a bunch of permanent and recurring cast members over the years, but it’s hard to imagine the show without the mention of the trinity – ACP Pradyuman, Inspector Abhijeet and Inspector Daya (honourable mention to Fredricks).
One character in particular always fascinated me. It was Senior Inspector Abhijeet who always carried a different aura than the rest of the squad. His blazer was a sign of his seniority over others, and the absence of a tie denoted that he was ranked below the ACP. However, Abhijeet was not there at the start of the show! In fact, we owe our beloved Senior Inspector Abhijeet’s character (played by Aditya Srivastava) to the making of one of the most iconic movies of Indian Cinema – Lagaan. Here’s how the story goes.
Let’s start from the beginning. The year was 1992 when BP Singh (the man behind CID and Aahat) decided to create a show about a crime investigation team. He already had the experience of making shows of a similar genre with the Marathi hit series Ek Shunya Shunya and the film Sirf Chaar Din. And guess who was amongst the cast of Ek Shunya Shunya? Our beloved Shivaji Satam aka ACP Pradyuman. And when BP wanted to shoot the pilot, he had just Shivaji in mind to play the lead in his show. In fact, it’s said that CID was conceived for Satam, and BP told him, “I am making the show for you, if you are not there, there is no CID.”. Thus started the shoot of the show, with Satam playing not the ACP, but an Inspector at the start (we know, hard to imagine).
With the first 6 episodes in the bag, BP kept on pitching the show to different networks though nothing fruitful came out of it, it was a different time in Indian TV space. BP meanwhile had been at the helm of creating Aahat which premiered in 1995 – it gave the Indian audience nightmares and Sony Network a dream TRP. Now BP had the license, and despite some skepticism from the network, the 6 episodes from 1992 were first aired in January 1998, and the rest, as they say, is history. With the 7th episode, however, the cast from the initial episodes was changed, with Shivaji Satam now promoted to ACP. Since Satam in these 6 years had been involved in other commitments, the show needed a new protagonist, and they found it in the form of Ashutosh Gowariker’s Inspector Viren who became an overnight fan favourite. However, Ashutosh had some other, and if we dare say bigger plans.
It was on the sets of CID that Gowariker had some of his crew members from a movie he was planning to make. In between the takes, he would go to the areas reserved for his assistants and was plotting one of the most audacious efforts in Indian cinema, the madness in the desert that was Lagaan. While leaving to shoot Lagaan, he had told BP that if the movie became successful, he wouldn’t be back. If it failed, however, he asked to keep the door open for his character in CID.
With Inspector Viren’s departure in episode 56, the show demanded a new character to have a commanding presence, and BP again wanted only one person. Well, Aditya Srivastava had a one-off appearance in CID, having already played a goon in episode 37. Meanwhile, he was also tasting success in films with roles like Inspector Khandilkar in Satya and he only wanted to be in CID for 26 episodes initially. Thus, after much negotiation, episode 73 saw Aditya back to CID, but as the episode number flipped from 37 to 73, so did his character, from a goon to one of the most recognisable cop characters in Indian TV history. As fate would have it, we all know what a landmark Lagaan went on to become and how iconic Inspector Abhijeet was.
“Wo aate toh main nahin rehta” – Aditya playfully says in an interview. Well, I never saw any episode featuring Inspector Viren in my childhood, so Abhijeet remains the OG for me and for countless children who binge-watched CID even before the concept of binging existed.
I still want to be part of a detective story, and I am pretty sure if and when I write one, my protagonist detective will be wearing a blazer in the heat of Indian summer. Of course, without a tie.