At a mega-event on Thursday 28 April Amazon Prime Video doubled down on content investments in India and announced 41 new titles in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English.
Amazon’s attractive line-up for the next two years includes some of the biggest names of Bollywood. For starters there is Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi coming together for Amazon in Raj-DK’s serial Farzi.
In Raj-DK’s Farzi (Hindi), a small-time artist(Shahid Kapoor) working out of his grandfather’s printing press has designed the ultimate con job , a crime uniquely suited to him , and gets pulled into the murky, high stakes world of all that it demands. A fiery, unorthodox task force officer (Vijay Sethupathi) has made it his mission to rid the country of the menace this poses in this fast-paced, edgy one-of-a-kind thriller. Raj-DK’s Gulkanda Tales (Hindi) will star Pankaj Tripathy and Kunal Khemu.
Vidya Balan, will be seen in Anu Menon’s Neeyat. When guests start dropping dead at exiled billionaire Ashish Kapoor’s birthday getaway, detective Mira Rao must unravel devious motives as the suspects are Kapoor’s close friends and family.
Bengal’s Prosenjit Chatterjee , Adito Rao Hydari get together for Vikramaditya Morwane’s series Jubilee. Jubilee (Hindi) set in a newly independent India, Jubilee is a fictional period drama that unveils the stories and dreams that gave birth to Bollywood, as we know it.
Madhuri Dixit who scored big on another streaming platform earlier this year with The Fame Game, has switched to Amazon with the feature film Majaa Maa to be directed by Anand Tiwari. Madhuri says Karan Johar recommended this film to her. One hopes Karan’s tastes for Madhuri’s talents have improved since he produced Kalank for her.
The Amazon package includes Adhura, a supernatural thriller set in an elite boarding school which hides a secret so dark and dreadful, it will shake the very foundations of the school and the lives of everyone connected to it, to be co-directed by Gauravv Chawla and Ananya Banerjee.
Bambai Meri Jaan starring Kay Kay Menon is about the quest to clean the mean streets of Bombay from the rise of organised crime in post-Independence India; an honest cop puts everything on the line including the thing he wants to protect the most, his family.Shujaat Saudagar directs.
Vijay Maurya directs Crash Course (Hindi), a fictional account of two warring coaching institutes, and the effect it has on a group of young students who are preparing for their competitive exams, with dreams in their eyes and expectation of their families on their back.
Sonakshi Sinha plays a cop in Dahaad (Hindi), a serial killer drama set in a small town, the show follows the investigations of a female inspector into a crime that shakes her core. Naga Chaitanya plays the lead in Dhootha (Telugu) a supernatural horror, possessed inanimate objects wreak havoc on the lives of people who commit deadly sins.
Happy Family Conditions Apply (Hindi) is a light-hearted family comedy about a quirky but lovable joint family that is always at loggerheads with each other. It will be the OTT debut of Raj Babbar who will co-star with Ratna Pathak Shah.
Hush Hush (Hindi) traverses the lives of five women intersect in unexpected ways. Juhi Chawla, Ayesha Jhulka, Soha Ali Khan, Karishma Tanna, Shahana Goswami, Kritika Kamra play the leads.
Rohit Shetty’s Indian Police Force (Hindi) is about a young Delhi Police officer(Sidharth Malhotra) who will go to any lengths to track down and bring to justice the terrorist mastermind behind a series of deadly bomb blasts around the country.
Jee Karda (Hindi) is a coming of age series that delves into the lives of a close-knit group of seven childhood friends, trying to steer their way through adulthood .Directed by Arunima Sharmait stars Tamannaah, Suhail Nayyar, Aashim Gulati, Anya Singh, Hussain Dalal, Samvedna Suwalka, Sayan Banerjee.
Modern Love in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi looks at love in all its splendour, from the intense to the tender. The Chennai chapter of the widely loved US original anthology series, Modern Love Chennai explores six diverse yet universal stories of different facets, shades and moods of love, all set in the city’s many unique milieus.The directors are Bharathi Raja, Balaji Sakthivel, Raju Murugan, Krishnakumar Ramakumar, Akshay Sundher. The Hyderabad chapter of the widely loved US original anthology series, Modern Love Hyderabad explores six diverse yet universal stories of different facets, shades and moods of love, all set in the city’s many unique milieus. The episodes are directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, Venkatesh Maha, Uday Gurrala, Devika Bahudanam.The Mumbai chapter of the widely loved US original anthology series, Modern Love Mumbai explores six diverse yet universal stories of different facets, shades and moods of love, all set in the city’s many unique milieus. The directors are Shonali Bose, Hansal Mehta, Vishal Bhardwaj. It stars Fatima Sana Shaikh, Tanuja, Pratik Gandhi, Ranveer Brar, Naseeruddin Shah, Meiyang Chang, Yeo Yann Yann, Ritvik Bhowmik, Masaba Gupta, Sarika, Danesh Rizvi, Ahsaas Channa, Arshad Warsi, Chitrangda Singh
In Debaloy Bhattacharya ‘s PI Meena (Hindi), a young, troubled, female private investigator gets thrown into a world, where she has to fathom the unfathomable and find her own self.
Navdeep Singh’s Shehar – Lakhot (Hindi) is a neo-noir series about a man who reluctantly returns to his hometown where he not only battles his past demons, but also gets drawn into an even bigger cesspool of smoke and mirrors and must now prove his innocence.
In Suzhal – The Vortex (Tamil) an investigation into a simple missing persons case unravels and rips the intricate social fabric of a small town. In Sweet Kaaram Coffee (Tamil) three generations of women from the same family set off on an epic road trip. The Village (Tamil), India’s first show based on a graphic novel, follows a family on a road trip that falls victim to a clan of mutants.Vadhandhi: The fable of Velonie (Tamil) is a dramatic noir thriller about the murder of a beautiful young girl, seen from the Rashomon-esque perspectives of an unrelenting obsessed cop, a novelist captivated by her grace and an opportunistic news editor.
All in all, Amazon seems to be hurling a direct challenge at their OTT competitors in Mumbai.
