After launching a whole slate of original films earlier this year, Netflix is looking to produce more original series for the Indian market. Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma, with their production companies Red Chillies Entertainment and Clean Slate Films, respectively, have come on board as producers for two of the upcoming series.
The new series Betaal, Mai, Bombay Begums, Messy and Masaba Masaba will be launched over the next year.
Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment will produce their second series, Betaal, after the upcoming Bard of Blood. The horror show will be executive produced by American production house Blumhouse and Ghoul’s Patrick Graham will be the showrunner as well as writer-director for the project. Nikhil Mahajan has also been named as director while Suhani Kanwar is the writer.
Betaal, will be set in a village when a centuries-old British Army officer backed by an army of zombie redcoats goes up against modern-day police officers.
Anushka Sharma, with brother Karnesh, will be executive producers on Mai which follows a 47-year-old housewife Sheel getting roped into the world of white collar crime and politics. Mai will be written by Atul Mongia, Tamal Sen, and Amita Vyas. Sudip Sharma will be a creative producer on the project.
Filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava’s Bombay Begums, will tell the story of five women, across generations, in contemporary urban Indian wrestling with their desires and ambitions in life. Shrivastava will write and direct the series which will be executive produced by Chernin Entertainment and Endemol Shine India.
American actor-filmmaker Ravi Patel will star and write for the series, Messy. The show will revolve around Beanie, an aspiring comic, who has has to balance her career in comedy with “a yuppie day-job boss, peculiar BFF, persistent parents, and proposal-popping boyfriend”. Co-written by Neel Shah, Messy is co-produced by David Bernad and Ruben Fleischer, along with Seher Aly Latif and Shivani Saran of Mutant Films.
The final original is a reality series centered around fashion designer Masaba Gupta and will feature her mother, the actress Neena Gupta. Titled Masaba Masaba, the scripted series is based on real-life moments from Masaba's life as she handles her family, fashion career and goes back into the world of dating. The series is produced by Ashvini Yardi’s Viniyard Films and will be directed by Sonam Nair.