Flop Show is an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n television sitcom that first aired on Doordarshan

DoorDarshan

Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...

 in 1989. The show was written and directed by satirical

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 humourist Jaspal Bhatti

Jaspal Bhatti

Jaspal Singh Bhatti is an Indian television personality famous for his satirical take on the problems of the common man...

, who also played himself as the main character. His wife Savita Bhatti produced the show and also acted in all the episodes as his wife. The sitcom was a satire on the socio-cultural problems faced by the common man in India at the time. Although only 10 episodes of the show were ever produced, the show has had a long and powerful legacy.

Overview

Flop Show has a distinctive opening sequence. It starts off with a dedication to those whom the specific episode is poking fun at. This is followed by the title song "Flop Show", which mocks the show itself as being misdirected. It features most of the main cast collectively playing musical instruments as a band. Jaspal Bhatti

Jaspal Bhatti

Jaspal Singh Bhatti is an Indian television personality famous for his satirical take on the problems of the common man...

 appears as an eye-patch wearing, menacing looking director. The other cast members are dressed variously as a police inspector, a doctor, a peon, etc.

All 10 episodes of Flop Show are satires done on socio-cultural problems of the common man. The show was immensely popular and still gets repeated re-runs on various Doordarshan channels. The show was shot completely in Chandigarh

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...

 with some episodes being shot at Punjab Engineering College

Punjab Engineering College

PEC University of Technology, formerly known as Punjab Engineering College , is an engineering institute located in the city of Chandigarh, India...

 ( Bhatti is an alumnus of that college ). The cast remained the same in every episode, although they played different characters as each episode essayed a different story.

Another distinctive aspect of the show was a joke in between the casting credits at the beginning and a satirically reworded popular Hindi film song played at the end of every episode.

Episodes

Following is the complete list of episodes:

Episode	Title	Jaspal Bhatti's Role	Description
1	Chief Guest	Chief Guest	A satirical take on chief guests arriving late at public functions and thus making audiences wait. The episode illustrates the misery of a chief guest (Jaspal Bhatti) who actually arrives at a function on time.
2	Medical Bills	Patient's friend	A satirical take on fake medical reimbursement claims of employees. This episode is about Jaspal Bhatti's friend, who is very ill, getting hospitalized in his name. When he passes away, people assume Jaspal Bhatti to be dead.
3	Property	Tenant	A satirical take on the travails of honest real estate property owners. This episode highlights some of the devious schemes used by tenants for usurping residential property belonging to others.
4	Contractor	Tenant	A take on the poor quality construction of Government-built apartments and the shoddy work of contractors. It showcases the troubles of residents of housing complexes.
5	Ph.D	Professor and Ph.D student's guide	A satirical take on the harassment that professors guiding post-graduate research students submit them to. In this episode, Jaspal Bhatti plays the professor guiding a Ph.D student. He gets all his domestic chores done through his protege. Eventually, he agrees to pass his student's thesis with the intention of getting him married to his sister-in-law.
6	Meeting	Govt. Official	This episode takes on the daily routine of Government bureaucrats who spent most of their day in meaningless meetings and even appoint committees for making trivial decisions.
7	Govt. Officer	Govt. Official	A satirical take on the functioning of government offices. It parodies the misuse of government machinery, portrayed through a government official (Jaspal Bhatti) deploying public officials and resources to search for his missing pet dog.
8	Doctor	Doctor	A take on the callous working habits of doctors in Government hospitals. Jaspal Bhatti plays a doctor who loses his watch in a patient's stomach during a surgery.
9	Line Man	Telephone customer	A parody on the working of the Indian telephone department and its officials. It shows the delays in getting telephone connections, and the poor quality of telephone infrastructure in those days.
10	TV Serial	Producer	Based on the lack of creative content in TV productions. It parodied an attempt to produce a television programme by individuals with money but no qualifications. Jaspal Bhatti plays the producer here.

Cast

• Jaspal Bhatti
  Jaspal Bhatti
  Jaspal Singh Bhatti is an Indian television personality famous for his satirical take on the problems of the common man...
  
  
• Vivek Shauq
  Vivek Shauq
  Vivek Shauq was a noted actor, comedian, writer and singer. He had acted in Hindi and Punjabi films, television serials, theatre and television commercials. He was also a popular writer and singer. Shauq was also involved with the Sant Nirankari Mission. He was fluent in Urdu. He was also the...
  
  
• Savita Bhatti
• Rajesh Jolly
• BN Sharma
• Kuldeep Sharma
• Ravi Sharma
• Prem Kakaria
• Binny Grover
• Devender Mundepi
• Payal Chaudhary
• Vinod Sharma
• Rajinder
• Brijesh Ahuja
• Kishore Mehta
• Shyam Juneja