''Everest '' is a

Hindi-language Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has bee ...

Indian telenovela telecasted by

STAR Plus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly ''Star India''), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedi ...

. Directed by Glenn Baretto and Ankush Mohla, ''Everest'' is created by

Ashutosh Gowariker Ashutosh Gowariker (born 15 February 1964) is an Indian film director, actor, screenwriter and producer who works in Hindi cinema. He is known for directing films "set on a huge canvas while boasting of an opulent treatment". His is particular ...

and produced by Ashutosh Gowariker Productions Private Limited (AGPPL).

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

composed the music for the telenovela, which is the television debut of both Gowariker and Rahman, as producer and music composer respectively. ''Everest'' has been shot in India and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

, with shooting locations including the

Everest Base Camp There are two base camps on Mount Everest, on opposite sides of the mountains: South Base Camp is in Nepal at an altitude of (), while North Base Camp is in Tibet, China at (). The base camps are rudimentary campsites at the base of Mount Eve ...

(in Nepal) and the Dokriani Glacier (in India), which are located at a height of and above sea level, respectively. The telenovela was shot in extreme conditions and temperatures. ''Everest'' premiered on STAR Plus on 3 November 2014 and ended its run on 1 March 2015, after airing 102 episodes. The plot revolves around Anjali Singh Rawat's ( Shamata Anchan) expedition to climb Mount Everest with Aakash Joshi (

Rohan Gandotra Rohan Gandotra (born 26 August 1990) is an Indian television actor who debuted with ''Everest (Indian TV series), Everest'' and then appeared in shows like ''Qubool Hai'', ''Kaala Teeka'', ''Naagin (2015 TV series), Naagin 2'' , ''Dil Se Dil Ta ...

) and others. By climbing the summit, Anjali wants to win her father's love while Aakash wants to make a documentary on Arjun Sabharwal ( Sahil Salathia), who is on the expedition with them. Prior to its premiere, STAR network employed a series of marketing strategies to help promote the telenovela, one of them being by helping the audience connect to the story by metaphorically interpreting "Everest" to mean an individual's personal journey to overcome struggles. The telenovela also received sponsorships and promotional help from various brands, the news, and the social networking media. ''Everest'' involved a high production cost.

Plot

A group of students enrol in the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, in

Uttarkashi Uttarkashi, meaning Varanasi, Kashi of the north, is a town located in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand, India. Uttarkashi town is headquarters of the district. Uttarkashi is also known as Somya Kashi. Uttarkashi is a religious place for spir ...

, for undergoing training to climb

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow hei ...

. Anjali Singh Rawat ( Shamata Anchan), who feels neglected by her father, wishes to win his love by fulfilling his dream of climbing Everest. Aakash Joshi (

) is a videographer, who is to make a documentary on Arjun Sabharwal's ( Sahil Salathia) expedition to Everest. As the plot proceeds a relationship between Anjali and Aakash fruitions. Eight mountaineers — Colonel Arun Abhyankar ( Milind Gunaji), Arjun, Aakash, Chaand (

Diganta Hazarika Diganta Hazarika is an Indian actor and model. He made his Bollywood debut in the epic adventure film, ''Mohenjo Daro'' (2016), directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. He has acted in Assamese and Hindi films. Early life Diganta Hazarika was born on 2 ...

) and four

sherpas The Sherpa are one of the Tibetan ethnic groups native to the most mountainous regions of Nepal, Tingri County in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Himalayas. The term ''sherpa'' or ''sherwa'' derives from the Sherpa language words ("east") ...

— make their way to Mount Everest after climbing the base camp, while Anjali climbs the base camp alone. In the journey, one sherpa falls in a valley while the mountaineers encounter loose snow near Camp 2. The team is saved from death by Arun, though they encounter constant hurdles owing to lost ropes and oxygen tanks, and snow. The team tries to contact Nasir (

Aditya Raj Kapoor Aditya Raj Kapoor (born 1 July 1956) is an Cinema of India, Indian film actor and filmmaker and retired businessman from the Kapoor family. He is the son of late actor Shammi Kapoor and actress Geeta Bali. Kapoor is best known for his work as an ...

) and others, trapped at Camp 4, but they find him near death when they reach the camp. With favourable weather, Arun decides to resume climb while Aakash remains at Camp 4 for there is insufficient oxygen. The climbers are hit with a dangerous storm, and Arjun leaves for the south summit alone without informing anyone; he had wanted to climb Everest without oxygen. Arjun soon passes out and is buried in snow, though he is found later. He informs of his wish to not continue to mission sponsor, Ramesh Roongta (

Rajat Kapoor Rajat Kapoor (born 11 February 1961) is an Indian actor, filmmaker and playwright who works in Hindi cinema. Kapoor was born in Delhi, India. He mainly focused on acting at first. In 2013 he joined the theatre group Chingari in Delhi, later mov ...

), who fears damage to his reputation and is furious. At the base camp, Ramesh tells Major Sameer (

Mohan Kapoor Mohan Kapur (born 27 October 1965) is an Indian actor, voice artist and television host who works predominantly in Hindi films and television. Career Mohan is famous for being the first South Asian host of the first South Asian original progra ...

) of his promise to his shareholders of flying their corporation's flag at the Everest summit. As Arjun does not wish to continue, Arun tells Tashi and Chaand to prepare to descend, as Ramesh had funded the expedition for Arjun; hence the team cannot continue without Ramesh's permission. Tara loses her life in the ensuing journey and Arun sustains internal injuries at Camp 3. Chaand is asked to lead Aakash and Anjali to the summit. At the Hillary Step, following strong winds, Chaand dies. Soon later, Anjali and Aakash successfully reach the summit. Anjali waves the Indian flag on the top of the summit, which is live streamed by Aakash. After her success in climbing

Anjali received the love and support she wanted from her father

Cast

* Shamata Anchan as Anjali Singh Rawat *

as Nasir Siddiqui * Armaan Khera as Vidhaan Bharadwaj *

as Chaand Hazarika *

Kishori Shahane Kishori Shahane is an Indian classical and folk dancer and actress who works in the Hindi and Marathi movies and television. - She is married to Hindi filmmaker Deepak Balraj Vij. She is a producer who helped to make a film about the life of ...

as Sarita Rawat * Manish Choudhary as Brigadier Jagat Singh Rawat * Milind Gunaji as Colonel Arun Abhyankar *

as Major Sameer Khanna (Sam) * Naina Trivedi as Maithili *

as Ramesh Roongta * Jaswinder Gardner as Sakshi Roongta *

as Aakash Joshi * Sahil Salathia as Arjun Sabharwal * Simran Judge as Reena Tyagi *

Suhasini Mulay Suhasini Mulay (born 20 November 1950) is an Indian actress in Assamese, Bollywood and Marathi films as well as television. She won National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1999, for her performance in Gulzar's film '' Hu Tu Tu'' ...

as Shikha Maa * Surabhi Prabhu as Tara * Teeshay Shah as Biju

Production

In 2014, ''Afaqs'' described ''Everest'' as "high on investment", while Gaurav Banerjee, the general manager of STAR Plus, stated ''Everest'' to be "a television show at a scale bigger than any other show". The cost of production per episode was 35 lakhs. Gowariker had mentioned his interest of giving the television audience a cinematic experience through ''Everest''. It was also reported that ''Everest'' led to a delay in Gowariker's film ''

Mohenjo Daro Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men'; Produced by Ashutosh Gowariker Productions Private Limited, ''Everest'' is Gowariker's television debut as a producer. It was slated to telecast 100 episodes. The show has been directed by Glenn Baretto and Ankush Mohla, and edited by Dilip Deo. The story along with the series screenplay is written by Mitali Mahajan and Gowariker, while the episodic screenplay is written by

Bhavani Iyer Bhavani Iyer is an Indian screenwriter and novelist from Mumbai. Career Bhavani Iyer started her career with advertising as a trainee copywriter. She then moved to journalism and had worked as the editor for the film magazine ''Stardust. ''She ...

. Preeti Mamgain, Lalit Marathe, Manisha Korde, and Mridul have written the dialogues for ''Everest''. Other crew members included Amar Shetty as action director;

Aparna Raina Aparna Raina is a National Award Winning Production Designer. She started her Career in 2006 as an Art Assistant with the film Khosla Ka Ghosla and a Set Dresser in the critically Acclaimed film The Namesake. Since then she has worked on Several F ...

as art director; Alphonse Roy,

Mahesh Aney Mahesh Aney is an Indian cinematographer. Career A Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) graduate with specialization in cinematography, Mahesh Aney has shot more than a thousand commercials including some award-winning films for Pepsi, ...

and Piyush Shah as cinematographers; Preeti Sharma as costume designer; Vikram Gaikwad as make-up artist; and, Lochan Kanvinde as sound-designer. The music of ''Everest'' is composed by

, for whom the telenovela is his television debut. Rahman reportedly used tracks created by students from his music college for ''Everest''.

Making and shooting

Gowariker conceptualised ''Everest'' around two years before it was created, combining the themes of women empowerment and of a sport-not-talked-much-about, such as mountaineering. Prior to shooting, the makers researched by referring to books such as ''To Everest and Beyond'' by

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reache ...

, and accounts of various other mountaineers. They also met a few of them personally to collate facts and information. Accustomed to writing scripts for his movies, Gowariker reportedly found it difficult to write the script for ''Everest'', as in a televisions series the story proceeds after analysing factors such as television viewer ratings and audience feedback; ''Everest'' had to be written in one go. In September 2014, Gowariker stated that through ''Everest'' he also intended to address the " girl-child issue". Shooting began in December 2013, and by September 2014 ninety per-cent of the storyline was shot. The crew had to shoot in extreme temperatures and they required additional oxygen to cope with the increasing altitude, making it difficult to shoot. The crew was able to shoot for a maximum of four to five hours a day, increasing the number of shooting days. The shooting also involved a trek in Uttarakhand for ten days. The crew underwent various health tests prior to the shooting. The telenovela was filmed using equipment such as GoPro cameras and 4K technology. The creators collaborated with the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi,

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

for the shooting, which was done in locations in Nepal such as

Lukla Lukla ( ne, लुक्ला ) is a small town in the Khumbu Pasanglhamu rural municipality of the Solukhumbu District in the Province No. 1 of north-eastern Nepal. Situated at , it is a popular place for visitors to the Himalayas near Mount Eve ...

and the

, the latter of which is located at above sea level. Shooting locations in India included

Pokhran Pokhran is a village and a municipality located, outside of Jaisalmer city in the Jaisalmer district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the site for India's first underground nucle ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known a ...

, and

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the ...

in Rajsthan, and Uttarkashi and the Dokriani Glacier in Uttarakhand, the latter of which is located at above sea level. Producers had initially planned to shoot ''Everest'' in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. Before shooting commenced they met Colonel Ajay Kothiyal, principal of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, who convinced them to shoot in Uttarkashi, informing them of the availability of required equipments and expertise along with seemingly decreased production costs. The cast and the crew arrived in Dehradun on 6 February 2014, from where they headed to Uttarkashi for the shooting. Consecutively, the training of the cast and crew also began at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, following which they headed to the Dokriani glacier and Nepal, latter being where the last shooting of ''Everest'' was done. As per schedule, the team wrapped up shooting in Uttarakhand within two months.

Marketing

The promotional for ''Everest'' was released on 18 October 2014.

Indo-Asian News Service Indo-Asian News Service or IANS is a private Indian news agency. It was founded in 1986 by Indian American publisher Gopal Raju as the "India Abroad News Service" and later renamed. Their main offices are located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The s ...

stated ''Everest'' being endorsed as "the most ambitious project on Indian television". In an effort to ensure audience connection, the makers interpreted the title ''Everest'' to be metaphorical of every individual's personal struggle to overcome hurdles and accomplish something. The trailers of the telenovela resonated with this idea, which were released in the theatres along with the release of the

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

film, ''

Happy New Year The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...

''. STAR Plus also launched a campaign titled #WhatsYourEverest on radio, television, and social networking sites asking people about their "personal Everest", in collaboration with its presenting sponsor, Fair & Lovely, which launched an initiative to economically assist women. The show was also sponsored by Godrej Ezee and Vinod Cookware. ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest se ...

'' promoted the show by asking celebrities about their "Everest". STAR Plus also collaborated with selective outlets of

Costa Coffee Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Dunstable, England. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. I ...

in India to create a special zone called the "Everest zone" in their cafés, where the temperature was to be approximately , with waiters serving customers who will be given jackets for protection. This initiative was started in Indian cities on 22 October 2014, and was to reportedly continue throughout working hours for a couple of weekends. Madhok said that this was done to ensure people get an experience of how it feels like to be at Everest. Marketing and promotions was also done by booking two thousand spots and through

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

, thirty television channels, and 3-D hoardings. Media planners reported the ad-rate for ''Everest'' to be four times more than average regular rates that a television fiction show demands. They also reported that out of the total budget an estimated twenty per-cent was to be spent on marketing. The launch of the telenovela included crew members from departments such as the department of costume and the department of photography. Nikhil Madhok, the senior vice president of marketing and programming at STAR Plus, said that the telenovela should "break the clutter". ''Everest'' premiered on STAR Plus on 3 November 2014.

Reception

The television viewer ratings (TVTs) for ''Everests first week stood at 2,845 TVTs. Following its premiere, ''Everest'' received negative criticism from ''

Firstpost ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language ne ...

''. ''Everest'' ended its run on 1 March 2015, after telecasting 102 episodes. ''Indiantelevision.com'', in 2015, noted that despite high production costs and advanced technology used, shows such as ''Everest'', produced and created by filmmakers, would not make a mark on television until they "reflect the taste and preference of Indian viewers"; such shows would have to "re-orient themselves for television" as "the grammar of storytelling on television is different from films". In 2017, commenting on the show's run, Shamata Anchan of the cast stated that the show did not do well with regards to television ratings given it being "something new" and stated the same can be worked on by building audience acceptance. The same year, ''Outlook Business'' had noted that shows such as ''Everest'' "have not exactly been runaway hits on the small screen".

Sameer Nair Sameer Nair (born 1965) is an Indian media executive and business professional currently serving as CEO of Applause Entertainment Limited. He helped revamp the Star India, Star One, Star Utsav, Star Gold, Star Vijay and Channel V television n ...

, then CEO of

Balaji Telefilms Balaji Telefilms is an Indian company that produces Indian soap operas, reality TV, comedy, game shows, entertainment, and factual programming in several Indian languages. Balaji Telefilms is promoted by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor and is a p ...

, told ''Outlook Business'' that "movie makers have never been successful at making TV shows".

References

External links

Official Website
on

Hotstar Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both d ...

* {{Ashutosh Gowariker 2014 Indian television series debuts 2015 Indian television series endings Indian drama television series StarPlus original programming Television shows set in Uttarakhand Television shows set in Nepal Mount Everest in fiction