Digital and mobile entertainment space in India grew exponentially in 2017 with the launch of new indigenous platforms like Hotstar and Voot that competed alongside Amazon Prime and Netflix. Coming up with home-grown original stories and content in the form of web series for the Indian audience, they paved their position in the industry. And it’s not just Hotstar and Voot, popular web-series platforms like TVF, FilterCopy, The Timeliners, The Screen Patti, Dice Media have garnered millions of views and subscribers through Youtube.
2017 saw some really uber-cool shows with fresh faces and experimental storylines, wrapped in quality production and promotion. In the lingo that every Indian shall understand, these web-series have come up like IPL – short, digital and fast-paced entertainment over the long boring melodramatic TV serials. The coming of 2018 seems promising for this industry as new trailers indicate the involvement of stars like Saif Ali Khan, Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, R. Madhavan and others headlining new web-series. And just so that you don’t miss out on any of these, we have created a list of the 8 upcoming Indian web series to watch out for in 2018.
Sacred Games
Netflix’s first Original series from India is based on Vikram Chandra’s critically acclaimed bestselling novel ‘Sacred Games’. Starring Saif Ali Khan (as Sartaj Singh), Nawazuddin Siddiqui (as Gaitonde) and Radhika Apte (as Anjali Mathur), the show is a crime drama you don’t wann’a miss. If star power wasn’t enough, the show will be directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, critically acclaimed directors of many cult films in India. This eight-episode series will follow Sartaj Singh, a Mumbai cop, on the trail of Ganesh Gaitonde, a gang lord.
The Ministry
Not much information has been out about the show. But even the limited information gives us chills as Irrfan Khan will be starring this political satire, set in contemporary India’s corridors of power. Irrfan will be seen collaborating with AIB as Gursimran Khamba helms the role of being the show’s creator. The last collaboration between these two power houses made us laugh out hard (remember ‘Every Bollywood song ever’ video). The show shall stream on Amazon Prime.
Breathe
After ‘Inside Edge’, Amazon Prime’s next original series from India is an eight-episode psychological drama that follows a Mumbai cop, tracking a series of seemingly unconnected deaths. It, all, leads to an unlikely suspect who is exploring the slim possibility of saving his dying son’s life. Starring R. Madhavan in the lead, the recently released teaser for this TV series seems promising.
Memories
Vikram Bhatt is known for bringing original stories to the screen through his experimental story-telling techniques. His next show is called, Memories, which star Rohit Roy playing the role of a News Anchor. The thirteen-episode digital series is a thriller with the protagonist having some special abilities, who also helps the police in solving tricky cases. Rohit Roy has claimed the script to be exceptionally crisp and engaging.
The Test Case
A show that had big names like Nagesh Kukunoor, Nimrat Kaur, Atul Kulkarni, Juhi Chawla, Akshay Oberoi and Rahul Dev attached to it created a lot of buzz when it was announced last year. But the show’s production got halted, after the pilot was released on ALTBalaji, resulting in the delay of rest of the episodes. After watching the pilot, the show seemed impressive and the good news is that the rest 9 episodes are projected to be released on January 26, 2018 with some changes in production. Hopefully, that shall not affect the quality of the show.
Haq Se
ALTBalaji’s newest web series “Haq Se” starring Rajeev Khandelwal and Surveen Chawla will be released on their web platform soon. Set in the backdrop of Kashmir, it is a story based on four sisters living in a matriarchal family, who try to defy the societal norms. The show’s trailer seems intriguing with the characters tangling between love, career, truth and culture.
TVF Pitchers Season 2
After a massive success of season 1, the TVF Original viewers are keenly looking forward for season 2 of the show. Even though there is no word over the release of this series about three ambitious friends, who put in all their hard work to fulfill their dream of starting an organization of their own. We are positive that we will be able to explore the world of Naveen, Jitu, Yogi and Mandal somewhere near March. Season 2 is going to be beer-y exciting.
Baked season 3
This epic stoner comedy from ScoopWhoop which has a pretty dedicated audience of its own has garnered a lot of praise from its viewers. Baked follows the lives of three Delhi University students who have opened a food delivery service and explores the challenges that they face regularly — both in business and personal life. The show has still a lot more to tell and a lot more to explore so we can’t wait for it next season.