Citadel doesn’t premiere on Amazon Prime Video until April 28, but the spy thriller starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden is set for a second season, and it’s coming to California.
30.03.2023 - 05:23 / variety.com
Naman Ramachandran Leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films’ streaming production arm YRF Entertainment has revealed its second show. Titled “Mandala Murders,” the multi-season series is billed as a gritty crime thriller. It is created and will be directed by Gopi Puthran (“Mardaani 2”). Manan Rawat, who has worked on several films as an associate director for the studio, will serve as co-director. Vaani Kapoor, who won critical acclaim playing a transgender character in film “Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui,” will lead the series, her debut in the streaming space, alongside Vaibhav Raj Gupta (SonyLIV series “Gullak”). Surveen Chawla (Netflix series “Decoupled”) and Jameel Khan (“Gullak”) have also been cast in prominent roles in “Mandala Murders.”
Puthran will commence principal photography this week across the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in a month-long schedule, taking in the cities of Prayagraj, Lucknow and Varanasi, before heading to Delhi and Mumbai. The series boasts a large budget and will be shot on a grand scale, Variety understands. The first production from YRF Entertainment, is “The Railway Men,” a tribute to the unsung heroes of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. It stars R. Madhavan (“Rocketry: The Nambi Effect”), Kay Kay Menon (Prime Video’s “Farzi”), Divyendu Sharma (Prime Video’s “Mirzapur”) and Babil Khan (Netflix’s “Qala”). The protagonists of “The Railway Men” are workers at the Bhopal railway station who saved thousands of lives. The show is nearly ready. “We are going to have more such stories coming out – a couple of shows in the next three years. We are in development on a lot of stuff. And we’re going to pick and choose what we put into production. But you’re going to see more momentum from us on
Citadel doesn’t premiere on Amazon Prime Video until April 28, but the spy thriller starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden is set for a second season, and it’s coming to California.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A growing range of Thai, Japanese and Chinese-language films and TV shows are reaching global audiences – joining the by-now well-established international viewership for South Korean shows.Netflix’s Global Top 10 for the week April 3-10, sees made-for-streaming Korean title “Kill Boksoon” on top of the non-English-language films list, with 27.5 million hours watched in its second week of release. It is immediately followed by Thai film “Hunger,” about a young woman apprentice in an upmarket restaurant working under a tough boss. The film is directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and stars “Bad Genius” breakout Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.K.-based sales agent Mister Smith Entertainment has picked up international rights to “Grafted,” a New Zealand-set horror film which marks the feature directing debut of Sasha Rainbow. The film is now in production. Mister Smith will launch sales next month in Cannes. The film tells story of a Chinese student who travels to New Zealand to complete the scientific work of her deceased father only to find a new way of achieving popularity, one body at a time.
, Jen's friends, Randi and Myra, finally meet Rishi in person, and Randi confronts him about sending her a flirtatious pic when she catfished him to see if he was being faithful to Jen.Jen uprooted her life in Oklahoma to be with Rishi in India, but her friends don't trust him and even his own friends have doubts that he's been faithful to her while they were living in different countries. Though Rishi insisted to Jen that he was never unfaithful to her and told her he wasn't even speaking to other women online, Randi told her that when she catfished him by pretending to be a model visiting India, he sent her a shirtless picture in nothing but a towel and was trying to meet up with her.
EXCLUSIVE: Disney+ Hotstar has set Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo as its latest original series.
Priyanka Chopra is getting ready for the launch of her Prime Video series Citadel and she has already lined up another project with Amazon!
Angelique Jackson CAA has signed filmmaker Megan Park for representation. Park’s feature directorial debut, “The Fallout,” premiered at SXSW in 2021 and took home the festival’s grand jury prize and audience award, as well as the first-ever Brightcove Illumination Award for writing the screenplay. The film was released on HBO Max in Jan. 2022 and stars Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler, following the teenagers as they attempt to rebuild their lives after a school tragedy. Park was named one of Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch” for 2022 and also won the Toronto International Film Festival’s Rising Star Award and an Emerging Directors Award from the Cannes Film Festival.
Naman Ramachandran The next magnum opus from Amazon Prime Video India is “Jubilee,” a period piece that charts the growing pangs of India and the rise of the country’s Hindi-language film industry that would come to be known by the term Bollywood in later years. Beginning around the months in 1947 when the subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan, the dramatis personae in the series include studio boss Srikant Roy (Prasenjit Chatterjee), his movie star wife Sumitra Kumari (Aditi Rao Hydari), trusted aide with acting ambitions Binod Das (Aparshakti Khurana), talented refugee Jay Khanna (Sidhant Gupta) and courtesan Nilofer (Wamiqa Gabbi), whose worlds collide.
Naman Ramachandran Yash Raj Films’ “Pathaan” is the biggest Indian hit of the year so far grossing $130 million. The studio’s Akshaye Widhani also served as a co-producer on the film. Part of the release strategy around “Pathaan” was keeping Shah Rukh Khan away from the film’s promotions, creating curiosity around the superstar’s comeback film, the first time he’d headlined a project since 2018’s “Zero.” “There was a lot of excitement and hunger to see India’s biggest movie star on screen after four years. We wanted to preserve that. So when we got into a room with him to talk about marketing the film, we all felt what if we went with a different strategy this time, which is less is more. So we hold back Shah Rukh, not have him seen pre-release, not have him interact with anybody pre-release,” Widhani told Variety. “But once the the film is out, then we come out into the media. That was a conscious decision and one that paid off well, because the whole excitement to go watch him on screen became even more, and the hunger increased when you didn’t see him. And it worked well for us.”
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In cricket-mad India the upcoming Indian Premier League tournament could be a watershed for the country’s jostling media empires, according to Singapore-based consultancy and analysis firm, Media Partners Asia. Video rights for the tournament were split between incumbent pay-TV player Disney Star India, which paid close to $3.1 billion for broadcast rights to the five 2023-2027 editions, and Viacom18, which is backed by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Paramount (as a minority stakeholder), in partnership with financier Bodhi Tree Systems. It paid a similar sum for the separate digital rights. Media Partners Asia estimates that advertising revenues spawned by the two-month 2023 competition will end up around $550 million – representing a clear loss on the annualized cost of $1.2 billion, or roughly $600 million per conglomerate, for the tournament rights. (The analysis firm forecasts that RIL will earn $300-350 million in ad sales, while Star’s best-case scenario is $220 million.)
Amazon Prime Video is exploring more global franchise opportunities following the success of the Russo Brothers’ Citadel.
first look between Young Queen Charlotte and Young King George as well as the overwhelming weight societal pressure that awaits her in the “Bridgerton” prequel series’ teaser, the trailer spotlights Queen Charlotte’s rise to the throne amid a loving yet tumultuous marriage.As Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) arrives to the famed palace lamenting “Why me?” her brother attempts to knock some sense into his stubborn sister, saying “there are worse fates than marrying the king of England.”While her brother might be right, Charlotte quickly starts to feel the weight of the nation on her shoulders as her union with the king is expected to bring about societal unity and “as many babies as possible.” While Brimsley (Sam Clemmett) offers Charlotte support as she prepares for her impending marriage and royal debut, there’s just one problem: Charlotte has not yet met her soon-to-be husband.Then comes the highly anticipated introduction as Young King George (Corey Mylchreest) discovers Charlotte trying to climb over the castle wall from what she expects will be a disaster of a life — which is intercepted when George provides the reassurance Charlotte had been craving.“I realize you have no reason to like me,” George tells Charlotte. “But if you will give me one evening of your time, then I might make you hate me a little bit less.” While their whirlwind romance satisfies the desires of both the pair and their closest advisors, their relationship is quickly shrouded in secrecy as George’s whereabouts and condition is hidden from Charlotte, leading to a tense confrontation between the couple.“I do not want to fight,” George insists, while Charlotte declares “I want to fight with you.
BreAnna Bell Netflix has unveiled the official trailer for its forthcoming “Bridgerton” prequel series, “Queen Charlotte.” The first full trailer of the upcoming season introduces viewers to a young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio), who goes on a journey of self-discovery and love. After being paired in an arranged marriage to King George, a worried Charlotte opens the nearly three-minute clip wondering why she was chosen by the royal family to ascend the throne as the wife of England’s young leader. “Centered on Queen Charlotte’s rise to prominence and power, this ‘Bridgerton’-verse prequel tells the story of how the young Queen’s marriage to King George sparked both a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in ‘Bridgerton,'” reads the show’s official logline, per Netflix.
Naman Ramachandran Real life husband and wife couple, celebrity cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood star Anushka Sharma, are merging their respective foundations – Anushka Sharma Foundation and Virat Kohli Foundation – to launch SeVVA, a joint non-profit initiative aimed at helping those in need. Sharma and Kohli said in a joint statement: “In the words of Kahlil Gibran ‘for in truth it is life that gives unto life – while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.’ With this sentiment in mind, we have decided to work together through SeVVA aiming to reach out to as many people as possible. SeVVA’s work won’t be confined to a particular issue as it will continue to strive for social good by championing humanity which is the need of the hour today.”
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian Canadian actor Giacomo Gianniotti, who played Dr. Andrew DeLuca on “Grey’s Anatomy,” is set to star in “Inganno,” Netflix’s Italian adaptation of the U.K. TV series “Gold Digger” that starts shooting this week on the Amalfi coast. The taboo-breaking show – which was dubbed a “toyboy thriller” by the British press – depicts the passionate and turbulent relationship between an older woman and a man who is half her age. In this case the affair disrupts and subverts Italian social and family norms. A “Gold Digger” adaptation for Indian audiences is also reportedly in the works. “Inganno,” which means “deceit” in Italian, is being directed by Neapolitan auteur Pappi Corsicato whose “The Seed of Discord” competed at the Venice Film Festival in 2008. Corsicato’s visual style is often compared to Pedro Almodovar, of whom he has been an assistant.
Naman Ramachandran Indian streamer SonyLIV has revealed a robust 35-strong series slate, including some returning hits, with a further expansion into South Indian languages in addition to its Hindi-language slate. Headquartered in Mumbai, the streamer now has three content offices in South India, in Kochi, Hyderabad and Chennai. SonyLIV also now has 24 million paid subscribers, SonyLIV head of content Saugata Mukherjee told Variety. In the Tamil language, after the success of “Tamil Rockerz” in 2022 and “The Story of Things” earlier this year, SonyLIV has saga “Journey,” headlined by R. Sarathkumar with Cheran Pandian (“Autograph”) serving as showrunner; and “The Madras Murder,” set against the backdrop of the Tamil film industry in the 1950s and 1960s, with A.L. Vijay (“Kireedam”) as showrunner.
Five new actors have just joined Taylor Sheridan‘s 1883: The Bass Reeves Story!
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Series Mania has always been about discovery: Of drama series as an art form, in its early days from launch in 2009; then of key players on a burgeoning international premium TV scene. Series Mania’s International Panorama now catches a new wave of creatives transitioning from film to scripted TV – Israel’s Yaron Shani with “Innermost,” Spain’s Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo with episodes of “Apagón”; and highlights notable emerging auteurs: Denmark’s Kasper Møller Rask, Canada’s Alexis Durand-Brault, Spain’s Fran Araujo, Pakistan’s Assim Abassi and Germany’s Jakob and Jonas Weydemann. But for having already bowed at national festivals, some of the 12 titles below could well have been in the running for a Competition berth.
EXCLUSIVE: Joaquina Kalukango (Lovecraft Country), Lonnie Chavis (This is Us), Rob Morgan (Mudbound), Ryan O’Nan (Queen of the South), and Justin Hurtt-Dunkley (Mare Of Easttown) have been tapped for key recurring roles opposite David Oyelowo and Dennis Quaid in Bass Reeves, from Yellowstone co-creator/showrunner Taylor Sheridan.
Naman Ramachandran A poster has been unveiled for “Barzakh,” starring top Pakistani actors Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed. The only South Asian selection at Series Mania this year, the series will debut in the showcase’s International Panorama, a 12-title competitive section where it will be eligible for the best series, director, actress, actor, student jury and audience awards. “Barzakh” (6 x 58′) is produced by Waqas Hassan and Shailja Kejriwal for Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent focused programming block on streamer ZEE5 Global. It is helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi who also directed Zindagi’s first Pakistani original “Churails” and the feature film “Cake.”