After a 21-year run, crime drama CID is set to go off air – at least for now. Cast member Dayanand Shetty told the Mumbai Mirror tabloid that the October 27 episode will be the final one. However, Sony Entertainment Television, on which the show is currently aired, said that a revamped CID will return after a break
The show has been on air since 1998 and has clocked more than 1,540 episodes.
“The show will gear up for a renewed season with a lot more contextual cases keeping alive the thrill that the audience has experienced so far,” Sony TV said in a press release. The channel has not yet indicated whether the original cast will return.
The police procedural stars Shivaji Satam as Assistant Commissioner of Police Pradyuman, Shetty as senior inspector Daya and Aditya Shrivastav as senior inspector Abhijeet. Recurring cast members are Dinesh Phadnis as Inspector Fredricks and Narendra Gupta as Dr Salunkhe.
Shetty told Mumbai Mirror that they learnt about the show was going off air just a few days ago. “It is quite unfortunate thing to happen as we were shooting like always and suddenly we were informed by our Producer [B.P Singh] that the shooting has been called-off indefinitely,” the tabloid quoted him as saying.
The news was met with protests by fans on Twitter and pleas to save the show.
As one of the longest-running Indian television series, CID has a cult following. Its memorable dialogue and catchphrases have led to numerous memes and jokes, making them popular even among non-viewers.
One such meme refers to the series’s longevity by noting that the CID team has solved more cases than there have been actual murders in India.
One of the most famous lines from the show is “Daya, darwaza tod do” (Daya, break the door), which is Pradyuman’s standard instruction to the muscular Daya whenever they come across a closed door that conceals a criminal. The following meme combines this dialogue with another catchphrase, “Kuch to gadbad hai” (something’s fishy), which Pradyuman says every time a mystery is particularly perplexing.
Daya’s door-breaking skills got Dayanand Shetty a role as Senior Inspector Daya in Rohit Shetty’s police drama Singham Returns (2014). In one scene, when Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) encounters a closed door, Daya comes to the rescue.
Pradyuman’s penchant for stating the obvious – after thoughtful deliberation – has also inspired many jokes. In the following meme, Daya tells Pradyuman that people in a building are in danger as a bomb might explode any minute, to which Pradyuman concludes that the bomb is in the building.
CID has also been parodied countless times. A popular example is The Viral Fever’s two-episode series, in which the fictional KID, or Krime Investigation Department, looks into a case involving a couple whose brains have been stolen. It’s a mystery fit for the world’s most famous detective, which is not Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Nancy Drew or Byomkesh Bakshi, but KID.
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