Today, a Telugu original series titled Arabia Kadali premiered on Prime Video. Featuring Satyadev and Anandhi in the lead roles, the series is based on the lives of Srikakulam fishermen who inadvertently entered Pakistani territorial waters during a fishing expedition. Naga Chaitanya’s romantic superhit film Thandel, directed by Chandoo Mondeti, was also inspired by the same incident.
Since Arabia Kadali arrived later, some are assuming that the series is a remake of the film. However, the show’s protagonist Satyadev issued a clarification. In an interview, he spoke about the overlapping plots of Thandel and Arabia Kadali, clarifying that the series’ pre-production began in 2023.
The actor said, “Krish Garu adapted the story and started working on it long ago. It took time for us to get approval from Amazon Prime Video and to design the screenplay in an episode-wise format. Only when the Thandel team announced their project we realized that both were based on the same incident. However, Amazon believed in our approach.”
Satyadev added, “Our series has eight episodes, with a lot of detailing, characters, and arcs. The conflicts are different in both projects. In our story, Anandhi and I fight for securing jetties in our area. It is due to their absence, we travel to Gujarat. My character is eventually forced to go on an expedition with people from a rival village. We all get caught, but more importantly, we have internal differences apart from the arrest issue. There’s more scope for drama in Arabia Kadali.”