In 1998 a 52 Episode Adaptation of Stephen King's IT Aired in India Tilted WOH
Here’s a fun series that was recently brought to my attention this week thanks to /Film. In 1998 a 52-episode series adaptation of Stephen King’s IT aired in India. It is titled Woh, and was made between the original 1990 TV miniseries event and the 2017 film adaptation. The Hindi word "Woh" translates as "it.”
IT is one of my favorite Stephen King stories and I had no idea this existed! The series was developed for Zee TV and unfortunately, there’s no version of the series that includes English subtitles, but you can still go through it and enjoy how things play out visually. But, if you speak Hindi, then you win!
The terrifying Woh clown is played by Lilliput and it’s just a creepy guy in clown makeup. The project didn’t have a big budget to work with so everything was done as simply and minimalist as possible.
Here are the story details:
Seven teenagers Ashutosh, Raja, Julie, Shiva, Ronnie, Sanjeev and Rahul battle an evil force that takes the form of a clown called Woh that kidnaps children, and free the town of Panchgani of his evil influence. They promise to return, if Woh ever returns. Fifteen years after they part ways, Ashutosh starts seeing balloons, at places where children are being kidnapped. He immediately recognises that Woh has returned and calls his friends to return.
All the friends return except Sanjeev who gets killed by Woh. The day they realise that the police take the friends into custody and they narrate how they battled Woh with the help of Samidha fifteen years ago. The police believe them and release them. They go and meet Samidha and she joins their group. They finish Woh with difficulty.
The series also has a very different ending than the book as one of the character’s sons becomes possessed by Woh! Yeah, Woh is not an alien from another planet in this version of the story, it’s a ghost. It’s explained:
The same day Ashutosh learns his wife is pregnant. Raja proposes to Samidha. All the friends return to their normal lives. Bad omens happen during the birth of Ashutosh's child Siddharth. His doctor and years later Ashutosh's wife's aunt are mysteriously killed. Ashutosh's friends arrive for Siddharth's seventh birthday, and realise Woh has returned as Siddharth. They go to the same caves and find out from the mother of Woh that he was her son who was bullied by society due to his dwarfism. He killed himself and became a vengeful ghost. The friends convince him to leave Siddharth's body and help him attain salvation. Siddharth is saved and the story ends on a happy note.
You can start watching the show if you want, here’s the YouTube link! This is actually an interesting take on King’s story!