One Night @ A Call Centre

Hello is an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's best-selling novel One Night @ A Call Centre.

In Hollywood popular novels are usually translated into big-screen adaptations while in Bollywood seldom do novels ever get made into films. But here comes Hello, a rare Bollywood flick based on the best-selling Indian novel, One Night @ A Call Centre by Chetan Bhagat who shot to fame with his immensely successful book Five Point Someone.

Hello is being directed by failed actor-turned-director Atul Agnihotri and stars Sohail Khan, Sharman Joshi, Gul Panag, Esha Koppikar, Amrita Rao and Sarath Saxena along with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in special appearances.

Rise to fame

Agnihotri played some inconsequential roles in a few biggies in the 90s such as Aatish and Krantiveer, but later was better known as Salman's brother-in-law after marrying Alvira Khan.

Agnihotri changed tracks after deciding to step into direction and made Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha (2004) starring Salman, Preity Zinta and Bhumika Chawla, but the film bombed at the box office.

"After the failure of my directorial debut I wanted to a film that would redeem me and I was lucky to have got an opportunity to adapt Chetan Bhagat's One Night @ A Call Centre. I am thankful to Chetan for his immense inputs during the making of the film," says Agnihotri.

Agnihotri has recently even made a statement in the press that if Hello doesn't click then he may as well quit direction.

Interesting characters

The plot of the film is a tale of six people working in the same group in a call centre called Connexions and revolves around the characters of Shyam, Varun, Esha, Priyanka and Radhika.

These characters are distinctively different from each other, but it is their common story of pain, sorrow, ambitions and personal trauma that bonds them together. The film describes how a night in their office changes their lives forever.

"It is great to make a film on a novel as it has proven in the past that films based on books such as Devdas and Parineeta worked very well onscreen," says Panag.

The former Miss India plays the role of Priyanka, a glamorous girl working as a call centre agent. "I have some grey shades to my character that make it very interesting," she says.

Starry appearances

Salman will be seen in a special appearance as a superstar and has done a item number Bang Bang in which he is expected to flaunt his well-toned, bare body once again.

Salman agreed to be part of this project not only because of Agnihotri, but also because he loved the film's plot after reading Bhagat's novel.

Besides Salman, his girlfriend Kaif will also make a special appearance playing a mysterious woman who is actually an angel in disguise. With Kaif on a golden run at the box office with six hits in a row, Agnihotri will be hoping for some of her luck to rub off on his film.