John Krasinski on Indian version of ‘The Office’: It’s mind-bending

Sydney, Dec 24 (PTI): Abeloved series or a movie always inspire international remakes but to find out that there are over two dozen versions of ”The Office”, including an Indian take, is simply ”mind-bending” for Hollywood star John Krasinski.
”The Office”, which itself was a remake of Ricky Gervais-led UK show, is considered to be one of the greatest sitcoms in American television history, running on NBC from 2005 to 2013.
Krasinski, who played the charming Jim Halpert across the eight seasons, said he was ”blown away” when he heard about the show’s Indian version, which came out on streamer Disney+ Hotstar in 2019. ”I am aware (of the Indian version). I was so blown away by that. That is so mind-bending and so exciting. I think there’s like 26 different versions of ‘The Office’ now or something, which is insane. ”I’ve heard that the Indian version is extremely popular and a big deal, which is awesome. I can’t wait to see it,” Krasinski told PTI in an interview.
”The Office” centred around the lives of employees of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, led by their effervescent manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell). The show’s success is often attributed to the bouquet of characters it offered to the viewers — from Rainn Wilson’s uptight and scheming Dwight Schrute, the lovable Pam (Jenna Fisher) to BJ Novak’s forever intern Ryan Howard and Mindy Kaling’s Kelly Kapoor. Over the years, its offshoots popped up in various countries, including Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
For Krasinski, ”The Office” was nothing short of ”an amusement park of creativity”, that ultimately paved the way for his debut as a writer-director with the critically acclaimed horror film ”A Quiet Place”. ”I never knew that directing would be anything that I would do in the future. I have to give so much credit to ‘The Office’. I mean, ‘The Office’ was my film school. It looked like I got the best gig in the world as an actor, but really I got the best gig in the world as a creative person,” the 43-year-old actor said.
During the show’s run, the actor went behind the camera for three episodes and got to learn the technicalities of the filmmaking process.
”I got to see what it really was like to have geniuses in the writing room. I was lucky enough to have the camera guys show me all the ‘ins and outs’ of each shot, and then go into the edit with these editors and see what a first cut, a second cut or a third cut looks like.