Since launching on Netflix on July 15, Indian crime drama Kohrra has shot to the top of the streamer’s Indian rankings and had critics, audiences and industry figures including Karan Johar raving about the show.
In addition to describing it as an atmospheric murder mystery, local critics have praised the series for being an incisive portrait of contemporary Punjab, the northwestern Indian state where it is set.
The six-part series follows two cops – played by Suvinder Vicky and Barun Sobti – investigating the murder of an Nri (non-resident Indian) who lives in London but has travelled to India for an arranged marriage. After he’s found dead in a field, with the British friend who had accompanied him also missing, the cops start to unravel not just a murder case, but a complex web of family secrets, land-related power plays, childhood trauma and parental patriarchy.
Randeep Jha, who was recently a...
In addition to describing it as an atmospheric murder mystery, local critics have praised the series for being an incisive portrait of contemporary Punjab, the northwestern Indian state where it is set.
The six-part series follows two cops – played by Suvinder Vicky and Barun Sobti – investigating the murder of an Nri (non-resident Indian) who lives in London but has travelled to India for an arranged marriage. After he’s found dead in a field, with the British friend who had accompanied him also missing, the cops start to unravel not just a murder case, but a complex web of family secrets, land-related power plays, childhood trauma and parental patriarchy.
Randeep Jha, who was recently a...
- 7/25/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Indian police procedural noir “Kohrra” (“Fog”) is the latest hit for streaming service Netflix.
The six-episode Punjabi- and Hindi-language drama bowed July 15 atop the Netflix India chart, where it remains in pole position for a second week. It also placed highly in the streamer’s top 10 charts across much of South Asia and the Middle East.
In the show, when a bridegroom from the U.K. is found dead days before his wedding, two cops must unravel the troubling case as turbulence unfolds in their own lives. The cast is led by Suvinder Vicky, known for Cannes title “The Fourth Direction” and Venice festival title “Milestone,” and Barun Sobti.
The series is created by Gunjit Chopra and Sudip Sharma, who previously teamed on hit Prime Video police procedural series “Paatal Lok” (2020), and Diggi Sisodia, co-creator of Zee Studios’ Berlin Series Market Selects series “Brown.” It is directed by Randeep Jha,...
The six-episode Punjabi- and Hindi-language drama bowed July 15 atop the Netflix India chart, where it remains in pole position for a second week. It also placed highly in the streamer’s top 10 charts across much of South Asia and the Middle East.
In the show, when a bridegroom from the U.K. is found dead days before his wedding, two cops must unravel the troubling case as turbulence unfolds in their own lives. The cast is led by Suvinder Vicky, known for Cannes title “The Fourth Direction” and Venice festival title “Milestone,” and Barun Sobti.
The series is created by Gunjit Chopra and Sudip Sharma, who previously teamed on hit Prime Video police procedural series “Paatal Lok” (2020), and Diggi Sisodia, co-creator of Zee Studios’ Berlin Series Market Selects series “Brown.” It is directed by Randeep Jha,...
- 7/25/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Every 10 years or so, Hollywood seems to fall head over heels in love with a writer. In the 1990s, studios couldn't stop turning John Grisham's legal drama/thriller novels into movies. Such was also the case with romance novelist Nicholas Sparks, starting with "Message in a Bottle" in 1999 and stretching on throughout the 2000s and a little beyond.
More recently, journalist and writer David Grann has quietly emerged as the hot new thing in Tinseltown. His book "Killers of the Flower Moon" is now a $200 million, three-hour epic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the screen rights to his newest work, "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder," were acquired by Scorsese and DiCaprio before it was even published. Recent years have also seen Grann's book "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" and his New Yorker article...
More recently, journalist and writer David Grann has quietly emerged as the hot new thing in Tinseltown. His book "Killers of the Flower Moon" is now a $200 million, three-hour epic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the screen rights to his newest work, "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder," were acquired by Scorsese and DiCaprio before it was even published. Recent years have also seen Grann's book "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" and his New Yorker article...
- 5/18/2023
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Currently riding high on the success of Netflix series Rana Naidu, Indian production outfit Locomotive Global is building out its slate through a string of deals with companies including All3Media and Endemol Shine India.
Rana Naidu, an Indian adaptation of Ray Donovan starring Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Daggubati, has recently been greenlit for a second season by Netflix after the first season trended in its Global Top 10.
Sunder Aaron’s Locomotive Global, a subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, developed and produced the series and has now added further scripted and unscripted adaptations to its fast-growing slate, along with original stories with filmmakers such as Prashant Nair.
Among the new titles, the company has signed a deal with All3Media to bring an adaptation of popular unscripted series Undercover Boss to India. It’s also acquired rights to UK series I’ve Created A Monster, written by Terry Clark,...
Rana Naidu, an Indian adaptation of Ray Donovan starring Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Daggubati, has recently been greenlit for a second season by Netflix after the first season trended in its Global Top 10.
Sunder Aaron’s Locomotive Global, a subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, developed and produced the series and has now added further scripted and unscripted adaptations to its fast-growing slate, along with original stories with filmmakers such as Prashant Nair.
Among the new titles, the company has signed a deal with All3Media to bring an adaptation of popular unscripted series Undercover Boss to India. It’s also acquired rights to UK series I’ve Created A Monster, written by Terry Clark,...
- 4/20/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Actor Chetan Sharma, who is known for his work in Sacred Games 2, Pagglait, Delhi Crime, Ankhon Dekhi, Band Baaja Baraat and Trial By Fire, is currently seen playing in Ajay Devgn’s recently released film Bholaa
Talking about Ajay’s approach with his actors, Chetan said: “Ajay sir is someone all of us have admired and grown up watching his films and I was obviously in awe of his presence. But his passion for making films and clarity of vision are truly inspiring. He would talk to his actors about scenes and design shots accordingly. He uses minimum instructions to bring best out of his actors.”
Sharing about the challenges of performing action scenes for the character he said: “I had never done scenes requiring so much action and was never cabled for any scenes before. Our action director Ramazan Bulut showed me how a cable pulls you and...
Talking about Ajay’s approach with his actors, Chetan said: “Ajay sir is someone all of us have admired and grown up watching his films and I was obviously in awe of his presence. But his passion for making films and clarity of vision are truly inspiring. He would talk to his actors about scenes and design shots accordingly. He uses minimum instructions to bring best out of his actors.”
Sharing about the challenges of performing action scenes for the character he said: “I had never done scenes requiring so much action and was never cabled for any scenes before. Our action director Ramazan Bulut showed me how a cable pulls you and...
- 4/7/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Banijay’s Endemol Shine India and Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan’s Black Knight Films will adapt hit Danish/Swedish scripted series “Bron/Broen” (“The Bridge”) for Indian audiences.
” ‘The Bridge’ is actually something that I was actively looking to produce. So I went looking for it,” Khan told Variety.
The original show opens with a dead body on a border that is shared by two countries and the discovery leads to a joint investigation by the police forces of the two regions, forcing detectives from both sides to work together to solve the crime. The global success of “The Bridge” – which has aired in 188 countries – has led to its adaptation in multiple languages, set across the international borders of U.S./Mexico, U.K./France, Germany/Austria, Singapore/Malaysia and Russia/Estonia.
The Hindi-language adaptation will also star Khan in the role of Martin, which Kim Bodnia played in the original.
” ‘The Bridge’ is actually something that I was actively looking to produce. So I went looking for it,” Khan told Variety.
The original show opens with a dead body on a border that is shared by two countries and the discovery leads to a joint investigation by the police forces of the two regions, forcing detectives from both sides to work together to solve the crime. The global success of “The Bridge” – which has aired in 188 countries – has led to its adaptation in multiple languages, set across the international borders of U.S./Mexico, U.K./France, Germany/Austria, Singapore/Malaysia and Russia/Estonia.
The Hindi-language adaptation will also star Khan in the role of Martin, which Kim Bodnia played in the original.
- 2/14/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Between the Sundance-laurelled “Against the Tide,” “Pathaan'”s thundering box-office and Netflix’s quietly gripping miniseries “Trial by Fire,” India is on a roll in Q1 of 2023, consolidating the recent red-carpet success of “Rrr” and “All That Breathes.”
In theory, that slate should be bolstered further by the return of nifty genre technicians Raj & Dk – writer-director-producers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. – who helped renovate the haunted-house movie with 2018’s “Stree” before handing Prime Video one of its biggest Indian hits with “The Family Man.”
Yet the oddly flat “Farzi” suggests the limitations of the pair’s approach – and that even streaming’s brighter minds might be prone to burnout.
Until now, the pair’s formula has been comparable to Xzibit’s on “Pimp My Ride”: take a clapped-out banger of a story and extensively redesign it. “Farzi” pushes its luck from the off with its uncommonly generic, get-rich-or-die-trying plot.
In theory, that slate should be bolstered further by the return of nifty genre technicians Raj & Dk – writer-director-producers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. – who helped renovate the haunted-house movie with 2018’s “Stree” before handing Prime Video one of its biggest Indian hits with “The Family Man.”
Yet the oddly flat “Farzi” suggests the limitations of the pair’s approach – and that even streaming’s brighter minds might be prone to burnout.
Until now, the pair’s formula has been comparable to Xzibit’s on “Pimp My Ride”: take a clapped-out banger of a story and extensively redesign it. “Farzi” pushes its luck from the off with its uncommonly generic, get-rich-or-die-trying plot.
- 2/10/2023
- by Mike McCahill
- Variety Film + TV
Rotterdam Competition Title ‘Joram’ Addresses Enforced Development Malaise in Survival Thriller Form
Throughout his career, Indian filmmaker Devashish Makhija has been a chronicler of social inequities and “Joram” continues the trajectory.
Makhija’s short films examine subjects as varied as misogyny, corruption, land grab and patriarchy. Amongst his features, “Ajji” (2017) tackles rape and its aftermath, while “Bhonsle” (2018) looks at a host of subjects including loneliness, social justice and the plight of the migrant worker.
With “Joram,” Makhija returns to themes explored in his debut feature “Oonga” (2013). Eminent actor Manoj Bajpayee, who previously starred in Makhija’s 2016 short “Taandav” and played the title role in “Bhonsle,” plays Dasru, a tribal migrant worker in Mumbai whose past catches up with him and he must flee with his infant daughter Joram. Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub plays Ratnakar, the weary Mumbai cop in pursuit of Dasru. Also in the mix is sinister tribal lawmaker Phulo Karma, played by Smita Tambe (Netflix series “Sacred Games”).
Acclaimed actors Tannishtha Chatterjee...
Makhija’s short films examine subjects as varied as misogyny, corruption, land grab and patriarchy. Amongst his features, “Ajji” (2017) tackles rape and its aftermath, while “Bhonsle” (2018) looks at a host of subjects including loneliness, social justice and the plight of the migrant worker.
With “Joram,” Makhija returns to themes explored in his debut feature “Oonga” (2013). Eminent actor Manoj Bajpayee, who previously starred in Makhija’s 2016 short “Taandav” and played the title role in “Bhonsle,” plays Dasru, a tribal migrant worker in Mumbai whose past catches up with him and he must flee with his infant daughter Joram. Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub plays Ratnakar, the weary Mumbai cop in pursuit of Dasru. Also in the mix is sinister tribal lawmaker Phulo Karma, played by Smita Tambe (Netflix series “Sacred Games”).
Acclaimed actors Tannishtha Chatterjee...
- 1/30/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix series “Trial by Fire,” which began streaming Jan. 13, has emerged as a hit for the service, featuring in the top 10 in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Based on the book of the same name by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, the series details the 25-year struggle for justice of the couple whose daughter and son were among the 59 people who died in a fire caused by negligence at Delhi’s Uphaar cinema on June. 13, 1997.
In 2018, the book was optioned by Sidharth Jain’s book-to-screen company The Story Ink, which quickly got the Krishnamoorthys an offer for the rights. However, after meeting the Krishnamoorthys in person, Jain changed his mind.
“I realized that this is no ordinary story. I cannot treat this like any other book to screen deal. The story needed to told responsibly and sensitively. So after a lot of contemplation, I canceled the deal and decided to develop and produce this myself.
Based on the book of the same name by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, the series details the 25-year struggle for justice of the couple whose daughter and son were among the 59 people who died in a fire caused by negligence at Delhi’s Uphaar cinema on June. 13, 1997.
In 2018, the book was optioned by Sidharth Jain’s book-to-screen company The Story Ink, which quickly got the Krishnamoorthys an offer for the rights. However, after meeting the Krishnamoorthys in person, Jain changed his mind.
“I realized that this is no ordinary story. I cannot treat this like any other book to screen deal. The story needed to told responsibly and sensitively. So after a lot of contemplation, I canceled the deal and decided to develop and produce this myself.
- 1/26/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
That ’70s Show sequel That ’90s Show, Kenya Barris’ feature directorial debut You People and Pamela Anderson documentary Pamela, a Love Story are some of the much-anticipated projects coming to Netflix this month.
Hitting Netflix on Jan. 19, That ’90s Show focuses on the teenage daughter of Eric (Topher Grace) and Donna (Laura Prepon), who is spending the summer of 1995 with her grandparents, Red and Kitty (Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp). Soon the Forman home fills up with a group of new friends. Grace, Prepon and fellow That ’70s Show stars Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama are all set to make guest appearances in the sequel series.
Jonah Hill, Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are just some of the big names starring in Barris’ feature directorial debut, You People, written by Barris and Hill and hitting Netflix on Jan. 27. In the rom-com, Hill’s Ezra Cohen and Lauren London...
Hitting Netflix on Jan. 19, That ’90s Show focuses on the teenage daughter of Eric (Topher Grace) and Donna (Laura Prepon), who is spending the summer of 1995 with her grandparents, Red and Kitty (Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp). Soon the Forman home fills up with a group of new friends. Grace, Prepon and fellow That ’70s Show stars Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama are all set to make guest appearances in the sequel series.
Jonah Hill, Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are just some of the big names starring in Barris’ feature directorial debut, You People, written by Barris and Hill and hitting Netflix on Jan. 27. In the rom-com, Hill’s Ezra Cohen and Lauren London...
- 1/19/2023
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On the afternoon of June 13, 1997, a fire caused by an improperly maintained transformer broke out in Delhi’s Uphaar Cinema, quietly fumigating an auditorium packed for a first-day screening of flagwaving blockbuster “Border” with carbon monoxide before plunging the room into darkness.
Those scrambling for the exits found multiple code violations standing between them and survival; the balcony doors had been padlocked from the outside to prevent late entry. 59 cinemagoers never saw the light again; over 100 were injured.
“It wasn’t a cinema hall, it was a crematorium,” notes one official in “Trial by Fire,” a necessarily sorrowful but forcefully compelling seven-part dramatization of the blaze and its aftermath, which represents one of Netflix India’s strongest miniseries to date.
At its centre are Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy (Rajshri Deshpande and Abhay Deol), a representative middle-class couple who are introduced as they wave their son Ujjwal (Abhishek Sharrma) and daughter...
Those scrambling for the exits found multiple code violations standing between them and survival; the balcony doors had been padlocked from the outside to prevent late entry. 59 cinemagoers never saw the light again; over 100 were injured.
“It wasn’t a cinema hall, it was a crematorium,” notes one official in “Trial by Fire,” a necessarily sorrowful but forcefully compelling seven-part dramatization of the blaze and its aftermath, which represents one of Netflix India’s strongest miniseries to date.
At its centre are Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy (Rajshri Deshpande and Abhay Deol), a representative middle-class couple who are introduced as they wave their son Ujjwal (Abhishek Sharrma) and daughter...
- 1/17/2023
- by Mike McCahill
- Variety Film + TV
Trial By Fire
Directed by Prashant Nair, Randeep Jha, Avani Nair
This is not a series. It is a piece of history regurgitated into a meticulously re-designed eyewitness account of what happened on 13 June 1997 when Delhi’s Uphaar cinema went up in flames extinguishing the joy and wellbeing of several families who lost their near and dear ones in the tragedy.
This series recreates the long and endless legal battle of a couple Shekhar and Neelam Krishnamoorthy who lost both children in the Uphaar cinema fire while watching J P Dutta’s Border.
The battle is long. But the couple’s patience, especially Neelam’s , is unlimited. This is the story of resilience determination and obstinacy , so real so tangible you can feel the pain of the couple every step along their painful battle. It won’t be wrong to say the couple fought their own war as fiercely as the soldiers seen in Border.
Directed by Prashant Nair, Randeep Jha, Avani Nair
This is not a series. It is a piece of history regurgitated into a meticulously re-designed eyewitness account of what happened on 13 June 1997 when Delhi’s Uphaar cinema went up in flames extinguishing the joy and wellbeing of several families who lost their near and dear ones in the tragedy.
This series recreates the long and endless legal battle of a couple Shekhar and Neelam Krishnamoorthy who lost both children in the Uphaar cinema fire while watching J P Dutta’s Border.
The battle is long. But the couple’s patience, especially Neelam’s , is unlimited. This is the story of resilience determination and obstinacy , so real so tangible you can feel the pain of the couple every step along their painful battle. It won’t be wrong to say the couple fought their own war as fiercely as the soldiers seen in Border.
- 1/13/2023
- by Subhash K Jha
- Bollyspice
Kuttey
Directed by Aasmaan Bhardwaj
The talented Ashish Vidyarthi gets to be seen in two places this week. He is splendid as an entrepreneurial broker in the new Netflix series Trial By Fire. In Kuttey which is stuffed to the gills with avant garde actors Vidyarthi has little to do except laugh heartily at some vague feeble fable that Tabu cracks about a scorpio and a frog. After a few seconds I stopped listening.
She is also fond of cracking up over her own philosophy of life: “Logic ki maa ki aankh.”
Best wishes to you too.
Pammi, that’s Tabu, could do some better lines. In the meanwhile, everybody tries to get the better of one another in this Guy Ritchie-meets-Vishal Bharadwaj kind of crime caper where the incumbent mantra is greed.
I think it was Ayn Rand who once said one needn’t be embarrassed or apologetic about being greedy.
Directed by Aasmaan Bhardwaj
The talented Ashish Vidyarthi gets to be seen in two places this week. He is splendid as an entrepreneurial broker in the new Netflix series Trial By Fire. In Kuttey which is stuffed to the gills with avant garde actors Vidyarthi has little to do except laugh heartily at some vague feeble fable that Tabu cracks about a scorpio and a frog. After a few seconds I stopped listening.
She is also fond of cracking up over her own philosophy of life: “Logic ki maa ki aankh.”
Best wishes to you too.
Pammi, that’s Tabu, could do some better lines. In the meanwhile, everybody tries to get the better of one another in this Guy Ritchie-meets-Vishal Bharadwaj kind of crime caper where the incumbent mantra is greed.
I think it was Ayn Rand who once said one needn’t be embarrassed or apologetic about being greedy.
- 1/13/2023
- by Subhash K Jha
- Bollyspice
Trial by Fire is a Netflix miniseries directed by Prashant Nair and Randeep Jha starring Abhay Deol, Rajshri Deshpande and Ashish Vidyarthi. Based on a book by Shekhar Krishnamoorthy.
Trial by Fire is a traditional series in which some parents seek justice and try to find the guilty party to, in some way “return” their lost children.
A clear premise that because of its choice, leads us, undoubtedly, to a portrait about justice and a denouncement of its mechanisms, also political and social around red tape and organization of a country, India in this case, and its problems.
Valued fairly, this is a series which seeks the “denouncement” more than a cinematographic approach. Some characters that are “parents” like any other “parent” in a tragedy that has happened as a singular case but could be considered a generalized problem, systemic if you wish.
It is up to you to enter...
Trial by Fire is a traditional series in which some parents seek justice and try to find the guilty party to, in some way “return” their lost children.
A clear premise that because of its choice, leads us, undoubtedly, to a portrait about justice and a denouncement of its mechanisms, also political and social around red tape and organization of a country, India in this case, and its problems.
Valued fairly, this is a series which seeks the “denouncement” more than a cinematographic approach. Some characters that are “parents” like any other “parent” in a tragedy that has happened as a singular case but could be considered a generalized problem, systemic if you wish.
It is up to you to enter...
- 1/13/2023
- by TV Shows Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid - TV
The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the release of the upcoming Netflix series Trial By Fire.
A single-bench judge of Justice Yashwant Varma was dealing with the case seeking interim relief.
Ansal had filed a suit seeking permanent and mandatory injunction against the series and a restraint of further publication and circulation of the book titled “Trial By Fire – The tragic tale of the Uphaar Tragedy” by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost their two young children in the 1997 catastrophe.
In November 2021, a Delhi court sentenced Gopal Ansal and his brother Sushil Ansal to seven years in prison each for tampering with evidence. However, the sessions court lowered it to the already completed period in July of last year, and thus they were released after serving little over eight months of the total sentence.
Neelam Krishnamoorthy also serves as the chairperson of the Association of the Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy,...
A single-bench judge of Justice Yashwant Varma was dealing with the case seeking interim relief.
Ansal had filed a suit seeking permanent and mandatory injunction against the series and a restraint of further publication and circulation of the book titled “Trial By Fire – The tragic tale of the Uphaar Tragedy” by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost their two young children in the 1997 catastrophe.
In November 2021, a Delhi court sentenced Gopal Ansal and his brother Sushil Ansal to seven years in prison each for tampering with evidence. However, the sessions court lowered it to the already completed period in July of last year, and thus they were released after serving little over eight months of the total sentence.
Neelam Krishnamoorthy also serves as the chairperson of the Association of the Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy,...
- 1/12/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
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