Ronnie Screwvala’s banner RSVP Movies will produce the espionage series Panthers, to be directed by Rensil D'Silva.
D'Silva's next film, Dial 100 (2021), starring Manoj Bajpayee and Neena Gupta, is due to be released on Zee5 on 6 August.
The director will also be the showrunner of the multi-season web-series which will explore the Indo-Pak spy games of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
According to the makers, the “45-minute episodic thriller follows the exploits of RAW heroes of the bygone era as they follow clues, nab their targets, gather information and link together the pieces of the puzzle”.
The web-series will also look into the plan to hijack Rajiv Gandhi's plane in 1971, when the future prime minister was a pilot with the government-run Indian Airlines, along with RAW agent missions that seem unbelievable now.
RSVP is joining hands with Blue Monkey Films’ Premnath Rajagopalan on this project. This will be the third joint production for the companies after the Yami Gautam-starrer A Thursday and the Dhyan Chand biopic being directed by Abhishek Chaubey.
Screwvala said in a statement, “Panthers is the story of India's burgeoning spy agency against a politically volatile setting. It is as eye-opening as it is gripping and boasts of the right balance of realism and entertainment, making it the perfect project for us at RSVP to get behind. Rensil is the right man at the helm of this one.”
D'Silva added, “The nation is embracing true stories like never before. All the covert operations mentioned in Panthers have taken place in real life. This series is a tribute to the daring feats of the RAW agency before it ascended to legendary status.”
Premnath Rajagopalan said that when producer Mukesh Radha Krishna Tak of Cair Saangi brought the project to Blue Monkey Films, his team was excited to collaborate with him and take it forward as this is a story that would make all Indians proud.
"We at Blue Monkey Films are excited to further our association with Ronnie and RSVP as they have long been associated with clutter-breaking and riveting content,” he added.
Tak, in turn, said, said, “The series is all about cloak-and-dagger games played between nations. It is the saga of our faceless men and women, living and dying in the shadows with courage, determination and valour.”
Panthers is expected to go on the floors in the first quarter of 2022. The cast for the espionage-thriller web-series is yet to be announced.