Netflix goes mega with new projects by Bollywood filmmakers biggies in 2020

Streaming giant Netflix plans to go all-out with diverse original projects in India this year, through new collaborations with top-league Bollywood filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, and Vikramaditya Motwane.

On Thursday, Netflix announced new original film projects for the year with Kashyap, Motwane, and Johar, even as the cast of Banerjee's recently-announced "Freedom" was revealed. These projects include entertainment across genres such as drama and suspense, and also an anthology.

Kashyap will direct "Choked", about a hapless bank cashier whose life turns around when she finds a source of unlimited money choked in her kitchen. It stars Saiyami Kher and Roshan Mathew.

The filmmaker will also star alongside Anil Kapoor in "AK vs AK", which will be helmed by Motwane.

Being described as a project about a "brash film director" who kidnaps the daughter of a well-known movie star, the film will capture varied emotions as the star searches for his daughter, and the director films the desperate search in real-time to create his next blockbuster movie. Anil Kapoor is happy to be back at Netflix. After being part of the anthologies "Lust Stories" and "Ghost Stories", Karan Johar returns to Netflix, too. He will delve into relationship complexities with his new project, tentatively titled "The Other".

Dibakar Banerjee returns to the Netflix fold with "Freedom", and the cast of the film, announced on Thursday, includes Naseeruddin Shah, Manisha Koirala, Huma Qureshi, Kalki Koechlin, Divya Dutta, Zoya Husain, Shashank Arora, and Neeraj Kabi. It traces the history of a family in three stories that are interwoven with the personal and ideological histories of India.

"'Freedom' is the story of us regular middle-class folks. With family ties, parents, grandparents, children, loves, lies and secrets lost and suppressed over generations. It's about food, ambition, sex, and betrayal. It's about what we hide and what we wear on our sleeves, and about a past and a future that we call India," Banerjee said, adding: "As a filmmaker, I want to move away from cinematic stereotypes, and working on 'Lust Stories' and 'Ghost Stories' with Netflix gave me renewed hope about creative expression in India. 'Freedom' is the next step forward.".

On the announcements, Srishti Behl Arya, Director, International Original Films (India), Netflix, said: "We are making films that our members in India and around the world will love. As we continue to expand our film slate in India, we are thrilled to work with imaginative storytellers who break boundaries and choose the unexpected over the safe. We want to be a home for India's finest filmmakers and their unique, universal and personal stories." (IANS)

Also Read: Zoe Saldana, Reese Witherspoon Join Hands for Netflix Series

Also Watch: Watch Bhogali Bihu preparation from Jajori in Batadrava under Nagaon District