Netflix announced five new Indian original series on Tuesday, including productions by Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma and a reality-based show featuring the mother-daughter pair of Neena Gupta and Masaba Gupta.
Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment has already developed Bard of Blood, based on the Bilai Siddiqi novel of the same name, for Netflix. The movie star is now producing Betaal, which will be steered by Patrick Graham (director of Ghoul, co-writer of Leila), directed by Nikhil Mahajan, and written by Suhani Kanwar. The synopsis: “A remote village becomes the theatre of a breathless battle when a two-century-old Betaal, a British Indian Army officer, and his battalion of zombie redcoats are unleashed. With Indian police pitted against the undead army, hapless villagers are trapped in a horrific, edge-of-your-seat conflict.”
Sonam Nair directs Masaba Masaba, a “scripted series based on real-life moments from Masaba Gupta’s life” and “her unique background, the diverse worlds she straddles across fashion and family, and her foray back into the dating world”. The series will feature Masaba and her mother, the actor Neena Gupta.
Alankrita Shrivastava (Lipstick Under My Burkha, Made in Heaven) is directing Bombay Begums, set in an Indian big city and following five women “wrestle with desire, ethics, personal crises and vulnerabilities to own their ambition”.
In Mai, produced by Anushka Sharma and written by Atul Mongia, Tamal Sen and Amita Vyas, the “docile, 47-year-old wife-and-mother, Sheel, finds herself accidentally sucked into a rabbit hole of violence and power”.
American filmmaker Ravi Patel, who directed the 2016 documentary Meet the Patels, has created and co-written Messy, about a standup comic artist, Beanie, who “struggles to balance a career in comedy with pleasing a yuppie day-job boss, peculiar BFF, persistent parents, and proposal-popping boyfriend”.
The Indian original series being streamed on Netflix include Sacred Games, Selection Day, Ghoul and Leila. Sujoy Ghosh’s horror-themed Typewriter will be streamed on July 19. The second season of Sacred Games will be available from August 15, while Bard of Blood will be out on September 27.
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