India’s Hotstar Belatedly Joins Original Content Race With Slate of Applause Shows
India’s leading OTT platform, the Fox- and Star-owned Hotstar will launch its recently announced original programming slate, branded Hotstar Specials. It has commissioned four shows produced by Applause Entertainment, the content arm of the $43 billion Aditya Birla conglomerate.
“Criminal Justice”, the BAFTA winning British series, the first season of which was remade as the HBO Emmy winning series “The Night Of,” will get an Indian adaptation by Tigmanshu Dhulia (“Paan Singh Tomar”) and Vishal Furia (“Lapachhapi”). Stars include Jackie Shroff, Pankaj Tripathi and Vikrant Massey.
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The Indian version of global cult hit “The Office,” remade by Rohan Sippy, Debbie Rao and Vivek Bhushan will also bow on Hotstar. Sudhir Mishra (“Daas Dev”) directs the Indian adaptation of hit Israeli show “Hostages.” Cast includes Ronit Roy, Tisca Chopra and Parvin Dabas. Political drama “City of Dreams” by Nagesh Kukunoor (“Rainbow”) stars Atul Kulkarni and Sachin Pilgaonkar, rounds out the slate.
The shows will premiere later this month and will be available in seven Indian languages. Hotstar has 150 million monthly active users.
“Hotstar is the leader of the streaming services in India and a perfect partner for us. We hope to entertain their audiences, to contribute in a small way to help achieve their business objectives, and to ink a deeper, longer-term creative relationship with them,” said Sameer Nair, Applause Entertainment CEO.
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