Netflix Woos Indian Fans with Period Dramas and Action: 8 New Original Films and 1 New Original Series

Indian Netflix fans can rejoice as Netflix has marked India for its Asian expansion strategy. Concluding its inaugural content event in Singapore, “See What’s Next: Asia,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos joined performers and creators from India to announce eight original films and a new original series. The showcase also included updates on four Indian original series that were previously announced.

The “Celebrating India” session at the event saw media and influencers from 11 countries across Asia witness the breadth and depth of Netflix Indian Originals. The updates on four original series include:

• A trailer for Rajma Chawal, a humorous family drama set in Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, which is set to release globally on Netflix on November 30, 2018. Starring Rishi Kapoor, Amyra Dastur, Aparshakti Khurana, and Anirudh Tanwar the film is directed by Leena Yadav. [Exclusive trailer here]
• A teaser trailer for the Anil Kapoor Film Company and Seven Stories Ltd produced, Selection Day, a series based on Aravind Adiga’s book of the same name, which is a coming-of-age drama about two brothers raised by their strict, obsessive father to be star cricket players. [Exclusive trailer here]
• The cast of upcoming series Baahubali: Before the Beginning, with Mrunal Thakur as Sivagami, Rahul Bose as Skandadasa, Atul Kulkarni, Vaquar Shaikh, Jameel Khan, Siddharth Arora and Anup Soni.
• The cast of Leila, a dystopian fiction series produced by Deepa Mehta, including Huma Qureshi in the title role and Siddharth Suryanarayan.

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“We celebrate India today with an incredible line-up of original films and series that are right now filming across India. This line-up cuts across genres from horror to fantasy and in locations from Leh to Mumbai. The breadth of stories with its local settings and complex characters is incredible and we can’t wait for people to discover and fall in love with them,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix.

Netflix rounded off these updates with the announcement of a new original series, Typewriter a haunted house series set in Goa. Underlining its investment in original films in India, Netflix unveiled eight new original Indian films spanning genres and involving the best of established and new Indian talent. Chopsticks is produced by Ashvini Yardi of Vineyard Productions and directed by Sachin Yardi and stars Mithila Palkar who won hearts in Netflix series Little Things 02, Abhay Deol and Vijay Raaz. The film is about an under-confident but talented girl, who finds her place in the sun.

 Bulbul, produced by Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Sharma’s Clean Slate Films, is a period piece set in a vibrant atmosphere amidst age-old beliefs and superstitions. Upstarts is a bromance about three college graduates from small-town India, directed by Udai Singh Pawar, and produced by Raja Menon, Janani Ravichandran and Jawahar Sharma of Bandra West Productions. This film is supported by real-life heroes from the startup world in Bengaluru.

 Cobalt Blue, based on the best-selling novel of the same name, is a story of forbidden love, and is written and directed by Sachin Kundalkar. Music Teacher, directed by Sarthak Dasgupta, is a story about an emotionally troubled music teacher, essayed by Manav Kaul.

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Hotel Mumbai tells the astonishing true story of the victims and survivors of the devastating attacks on Mumbai in 2008. The film directed by Anthony Maras stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Jason Isaacs. This film is available on Netflix in the SAARC region only. Another Mumbai based film, 15th August, produced by Madhuri Dixit, is set in a chawl and portrays the struggles of middle-class India.

Firebrand, directed by Aruna Raje and produced by Priyanka Chopra, is a Marathi film that follows a successful lawyer, a sexual assault victim played by Usha Jadhav. Girish Kulkarni essays the role of her husband. Sachin Khedekar and Rajeshwari Sachdev play a couple in the movie which is high on drama.

The Indian unit of Netflix has made a net profit of INR 20.2 lakh for 2017-18. Ever since its entry into India in January 2016 as part of its global roll out the company has logged revenues worth INR 58 crore for FY18, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies. According to reports, the media streaming company intends to add 100 million subscribers in India over the coming years. Netflix also has plans to create 100 locally produced projects to woo regional audience.