Jio Studios unveiled a slate of over a hundred films and shows at an event in Mumbai today. The Reliance Industries Limited company declared its intention to rival the likes of Amazon Studios and Netflix by releasing “stories across genres of films and original web series in multiple languages including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, South and Bhojpuri”, a press release stated.
The Hindi film line-up includes Dunki, directed by Rajkumar Hirani and starring Shah Rukh Khan, and sequels to the Varun Dhawan-starrer Bhediya and the horror-comedy Stree. In the pipeline are Bloody Daddy (Shahid Kapoor), Bhul Chuk Maaf (Kartik Aryan and Shraddha Kapoor), an untitled film starring Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, Section 84 (Amitabh Bachchan), Hisaab Barabar (R Madhavan), Zara Hatke Zara Bachke (Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan), BlackOut (Vikrant Massey and Mouni Roy), Mumbaikar (Vijay Sethupathi), The Storyteller (Paresh Rawal and Adil Hussain), Dhoom Dhaam (Pratik Gandhi and Yami Gautam) and Empire (Taapsee Pannu and Arvind Swamy).
Along the web series are Prakash Jha’s Laal Batti (starring Nana Patekar and Sanjay Kapoor), Union: The Making of India (starring Kay Kay Menon and Ashutosh Rana), and Inspector Avinash (with Randeep Hooda and Urvashi Rautela).
Rafuchakkar stars Maniesh Paul; Bajao the rapper Raftaar. The OTT shows include The Magic of Shiri (Divyanka Tripathi), Doctors (Sharad Kelkar), A Legal Affair (Barkha Singh and Angad Bedi).
None of the films or shows has been dated, and there are no details on their themes.
The upcoming Marathi productions include Baipan Bhari Deva (starring Rohini Hattangadi, Vandana Gupte, Sukanya Kulkarni), Four Blind Men (starring Ankush Chaudhari), 1234 (starring Vaidehi Parshurami and Nipun Dharmadhikari), Kharvas (starring Sandesh Kulkarni), Kaata Kirrr (starring Priyadarshan Jadhav) and Khashaba (with Nagraj Manjule).
The Marathi web series include Kaalsutra (with Subodh Bhave and Sayaji Shinde), Eka Kaleche Mani (with Prashant Damle) and Aga Aai Aho Aai (with Renuka Shahane and Hruta Durgule).
Jio Studios also announced a multi-film collaboration with leading Bengali producer SVF Entertainment. The upcoming films from this collaboration will include the actors Prosenjit Chatterjee, Mithun Chakraborty and Jisshu Sengupta and the directors Dhrubo Banerjee, Raj Chakraborty, Anirban Bhattacharya, Srijit Mukherji and Suman Ghosh.
The Gujarati line-up includes Bachubhai (Siddharth Randeria), Chaandlo (Kaajal Oza Vaidya, Manav Gohil and Shraddha Dangar) and Ghulam Chor (Malhar Thakkar).
In a press statement, Jyoti Deshpande, President, RIL Media and Content Business, said, “Since its inception five years ago, Jio Studios has worked very hard to lay solid foundations in scaling what is traditionally a very fragmented industry. We have actively partnered with some of the best names in the business and newcomers alike to reach this day, when a staggering and exciting 100 content assets have been produced, ready to be showcased to the world.”
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