Someone's misery is somebody's laughter, and it is not easy to make people laugh through their tears! But there was a show in the late 90's that managed to do just that -Hum Paanch. After a sabbatical of five long years, the Mathurs are back...and with a whole new team!


Telly Chakkar.com peeked into the live of these popular actors who made the characters real and believable. We spoke to the new additions to the family and here's what the family is going to look like now---

NOW!	WHAT THEY SAY!	THEN!
	Shoma Anand plays the step-mother who is hopelessly cool about everything and is crazy about John Abraham. "We are shown as this foreign return family this time so the house is lavish, my hairstyle has changed, I look different, I wear a sari only but then the element of sophistication is there. But the story and the mindset of all the characters has not changed," says Shoma.
	Ashok Saraf continues to play the hassled father, who is stuck between his two wives and five daughters and add to that two incorrigible sons-in-laws. "The look and attitude of the characters is the same and the house looks more lavish, technically it's going to be a little different. Hum Paanch worked because of the unusual characters and they haven't been changed this time as they are easily identifiable," says veteran actor.
	Sudha Chandran plays the deceased mother of the first three children who keeps her eagle eyes on her husband,the daughters and the new wife.She speaks through her portrait and is genuinly funny.
	Pushti plays Choti (played by Priyanka Mehra in the original version) on the show. "I play this cute, little chirpy thing and the youngest of the sisters. She talks too much and thinks she's very smart, " says a buoyant Pushti. Meanwhile, Priyanka Mehra, who now assists uncle Rajiv Mehra on LOC, is busy gyming and getting herself in shape for better offers. Pushti is currently playing Pammi in Zee's Kareena Kareena.
	Bhairavi Raichura loves playing Kajal. But the 'bhai'gets trendier this time, wears jackets, pull-overs, trousers and has her tomboyish look intact . "The new episodes promises to be full of masti and shararat where the daughters keep annoying their father. Someone who is ready for a fight at the drop of a hat and loves the idea of having underworld connections and goondagardi of sorts," says Bhairavi.
	Rakhi Tandon plays Sweety,the idiot of the family who only wants to look pretty and aims to marry a superstar who according to her co-stars in Hum Paanch is the most vivacious of all on the set,off screen.
	Vandana Pathak plays the eldest daughter Meenakshi, who is now married and has a daughter and continues be a feminist. "I am shown as this married woman who has a hen pecked husband. Now I am shown as even more dictating and bossy than before.Earlier I was shown wearing salwar kameez but now I have a trendy look and I am donning a short kurti, stole and trousers look," says Vandana
	Pamela plays Radhika, the deaf girl who is now married to a simple guy and has a daughter. She is the 'defective piece' (as she is fondly called), and is doing a PHD on sting operations "I play this deaf girl who uses a hearing aid, looks silly but is actually the intelligent of the lot. My husband is a very absent minded professor. I say something and he gets a different meaning of it. Though she has a good relation with her parents, her sis's make fun of her," says Pamela, who has done shows like Hip Hip Hurray, Kehta Hai Dil and others.

Ali Asgar plays Purushottam the eldest daughters husband. He plays an ad-man who is ready with his zany ideas both in the office and at home.
"I play Vandana's husband who is at the mercy of her wife. I am shown working at an ad agency, a complete whacko who has weirdest of ideas in the office. He has to dance to the tunes of his wife at home and someone who keeps pressing and pestering his father-in-law with all these ideas of his. He's the favourite amongst the saali's and is forever scared of his wife . I am happy acting in such comedies apart from Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki besides it's a pleasant change from all the rona dhona I've been doing for a while now" says Ali who is playing a ghar jamai in the serial. Its quiet apparent that Ali is enjoying the positive energy on the sets, the wildness and chilled out attitude of the Hum Paanch team.

Director,of the new Hum Paanch , Samir Kulkarni is very optimistic and upbeat about his new baby, the new Hum Paanch. He has directed Family number1 for Sony and Sonpari for Star Plus."The requirement of the audience has to be kept in mind so we have changed some bit of the look of the serial keeping in mind the Balaji image. There are new techniques of treating the serial so technically it will be more sound. Today if you have the dialogues alongside the visuals which are appealing enough half your battle is won whereas earlier only the good dialogues were enough to make a serial click. There are however no changes in the story and the characters as they have already been strongly established .You have to watch the chemistry between these actors to bselieve in what I am saying. I hope and pray it does as well as it did before and we have tried to give our very best to the serial."says Samir with an ear to ear grin.

With so much of positivism on and off the sets from the entire Hum Paanch gang it can surely not go wrong this time around as well. Here's wishing them our very best wishes.