NEW DELHI: Hotstar, the over-the-top (OTT) streaming service owned by the Star India network has announced its first set of originals, under the category of Hotstar Specials. The video-on-demand platform has announced four shows in partnership with Applause Entertainment, the content studio from the Aditya Birla Group.
The platform has announced Tigmanshu Dhulia and Vishal Furia’s Criminal Justice, the Indian adaptation of the hit British series featuring Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi, Mita Vashisht, Anupriya Goenka and Jackie Shroff in lead roles. Rohan Sippy, Debbie Rao and Vivek Bhushan bring the Indian adaptation of international cult comedy The Office, which features an ensemble cast. City Of Dreams, a political drama set in Mumbai is directed by Nagesh Kukunoor and features Atul Kulkarni, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Eijaz Khan, Priya Bapat and Siddharth Chandekar. International thriller Hostages is being recreated by Sudhir Mishra with Ronit Roy, Tisca Chopra and Parvin Dabas playing pivotal parts.
"With Hotstar Specials, we hope to create the biggest Indian stories delivered to a billion screens. To bring this vision alive, we are proud to partner with Applause Entertainment on our first set of Specials," said Sanjay Gupta, managing director, Star India, in a statement.
Hotstar announced its foray into original programming earlier this year, tying up with 15 film-makers, including Salman Khan, Shekhar Kapur, Neeraj Pandey, Kabir Khan, Nikkhil Advani, Ram Madhvani, Venkat Prabhu, Sudhir Mishra, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nagesh Kukunoor, Mahesh Manjrekar, Vishal Furia, Rohan Sippy, Debbie Rao and Sharad Devarajan to offer exclusive content in addition to the serials, movies and sports programmes licensed from its parent.
Hotstar Specials will launch starting March 2019 on the back of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They will be available in seven languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. “Hotstar is the leader of the streaming services in India and a perfect partner for us. We hope to entertain their audiences, to contribute in a small way to help achieve their business objectives and to ink a deeper, longer-term creative relationship with them," said Sameer Nair, chief executive officer, Applause Entertainment.
