Mumbai Calling
- TV sitcom
- ITV1
- 2007 - 2009
- 8 episodes (1 series)
ITV sitcom set in an Indian call centre. British-born Kenny is sent to India to run the business. He must work with Dev and Terri. Stars Sanjeev Bhaskar, Nitin Ganatra, Daisy Beaumont, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, Naren Chandavarkar and more.
Mumbai Calling trivia
Mumbai Calling star Sanjeev Bhaskar worked in a call centre after he graduated - selling spare parts for photocopiers. He told The Radio Times "The problem is you have to stick to really duff scripts on every call. In India it's seen as a hi-tech, high-profile job. All the call-centre workers I met there were highly educated, highly qualified, highly motivated people. Over there, you don't get through the door unless you're a graduate."
Source: The Radio Times
Series 1 of Mumbai Calling was filmed in 2008 but was not shown on TV in Britain until 2009. This meant that the sitcom was first seen on HBO in India.
ITV scheduled the first episode of the full series of Mumbai Calling directly after the final of Britain's Got Talent 2009. This was to try and give the sitcom a large 'follow in' audience. The plan worked. The Britain's Got Talent final became the most watched show in five years with nearly 20 million viewers (1/3 of the population) tuning in... and a healthy 5.5 million stayed with the channel after the winner had been declared to see what Mumbai Calling was like.
At the end of Episode 1.1, ITV felt the need to provide this continuity announcement: "We would like to clarify that the National Floodline featured in the programme is a fictitious service and not in any way connected with the floodline operated by the Environment Agency".