Ji Mantriji was an adaptation of the famous English comedy show Yes Minister. The show was made after taking permissions for BBC who owned the rights to Yes Minister. It was aired on the channel STAR PLUS and was first aired in 2000.
Ji Mantriji had
Farooq Sheikh
playing the lead as Minister of administrative affairs in the name of Surya Prakash Singh. Assisting him was
Jayant Kripalani
who played the character of Rajnath Mathur, the department secretary. The show won two awards during its run time, including the Hero Honda ITA award for best comedy serial and the Hero Honda ITA award for best comic actor going to Farooq Sheikh.
Ji Mantriji was based on almost the same plot as yes minister with the only major difference being the fact that it was shot with a live studio audience. For this show, France for the UK turned to Pakistan for India and the European Economic council was changed to SAARC and also with some major references to the commonwealth was included.
The show was pretty popular till it aired but it failed to create an impact as big as expected from a show backed by BBC. It was scraped without even releasing all of its episodes.