Shah Rukh Khan Ventures Into Netflix’s Zombie-Drama Betaal; More Interesting Projects Announced!

American streaming giant Netflix is expanding its India slate of original series, and focus on domestic talent is high on its priority list. Shah Rukh Khan’s Betaal, Anushka Sharma’s Mai and a lot of interesting subjects are in the making.

After the much-anticipated launch of Sacred Games season 2 on August 15, the digital entertainment site has content in store over the next months that flaunts Bollywood biggies such as Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. Netflix on Tuesday announced five new original series, exploring the worlds of deadly zombies, scary gangsters, stand-up comics and daring friends, in a bid to tell diverse Indian stories and reach out to the domestic market in a more aggressive way.

“Bombay Begums”, created, written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, will follow the journey of five women in contemporary urban India, who wrestle with desire, ethics, personal crises and vulnerabilities to own their ambition. Shrivastava feels “Bombay Begums” is an attempt to tell a story about the lives of urban Indian women with honesty.

“I hope women — and maybe some men — can connect to this story, no matter what their background, because maybe we are all trying to find ourselves and our place in this world,” she said.

Another project that has raised curiosity is the Anushka Sharma-backed “Mai”, which will tell a tale of a 47-year-old docile wife and mother, who finds herself sucked into a vortex of violence, power, white collar crime and politics following a personal tragedy.

“Mai” is executive-produced by Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Sharma’s Clean Slate Films and written by Atul Mongia along with Tamal Sen and Amita Vyas. Sudip Sharma is a creative producer.

With the project, Anushka is looking to disrupt the kind of content the audience normally consuming.

“‘Mai’ is an exciting work of fiction that tells the story of a middle-class Indian woman who leads a double-life of a don. At a time when audiences globally are appreciating differential content, ‘Mai’ will hopefully intrigue them and entertain them thoroughly,” said Anushka.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan makes a grand entry into the digital space with the spy saga “Bard Of Blood” in September, and will then follow it up with the zombie drama “Betaal”, which is backed by his production banner Red Chillies Entertainment.

In “Betaal”, a 200-year-old British Indian Army officer and his battalion of zombie soldiers are pitted against the Indian police.

Patrick Graham, who previously directed “Ghoul”, will write, direct and be the showrunner of “Betaal”, with Nikhil Mahajan also directing, and Suhani Kanwar sharing writing duties. It will be executive-produced by Blumhouse, known to design some of the best horror content, and Ivanhoe Pictures.