Amazon Prime Video has unveiled a big line-up of original Indian shows, including the first multi-season tent-pole action thriller web series starring Bollywood A-lister Akshay Kumar, as it bets big on India, its largest and fastest-growing market globally.
India has the biggest set of originals for Prime Video outside of the US, Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, told ET.
“We continue to build subscribership weekly,” Salke said. “Every week I get different reports that show a rapidly building audience in India, which is very exciting, which makes us just want to invest more.”
Kumar’s show ‘The End’ (working title) will be produced by Vikram Malhotra-helmed Abundantia Entertainment, which delivered the thriller ‘Breathe’ with R Madhavan to Amazon and is currently shooting season two of the series with Abhishek Bachchan.
“We’re very excited about this new show with Akshay. It’s a big thriller, it is edge-ofyour seat and it is global,” Salke said. “Also, he is going back to his action roots… Akshay loved the idea of doing something multi-season. This is the kind of show that really lives in the sweet spot of what we love — addictive edge-of-your-seat, season-to-season television with a big star like him.”
“Akshay and I have successfully collaborated on multiple films over the last decade and his versatility in choice of roles is unmatched. We now mutually felt that it was time to take things to the next level. I am proud that he makes his digital debut with Amazon Prime Video,” said Malhotra.
ET reported earlier that India is a priority market for Prime Video. The company recently announced seven more originals to take the total count to over 30.
“We are building relationships here and building a habit for talent and that feeds more creative content. We’re just looking to expand on that,” Salke said. “We’ve seen some of the most original content coming out of India, which just makes you lean in and want to invest more.”
Among the shows returning are the second seasons of ‘Inside Edge,’ ‘Breathe’ and ‘Mirzapur,’ while the new shows include ‘The End,’ ‘Bandish Bandits’ (a romantic musical), crime thriller ‘The Last Hour,’ two untitled drama series, one reality series, one Telugu original and a Tamil version of comic realty show ‘Comicstaan.’ Salke accepted that streaming services have been accused of “blowing the whole economic model.”
“You’re competing with some traditional media companies and they don’t feel they can compete with the budgets… I hear that a lot myself so I understand that that would also be happening everywhere,” Salke said.
However, she said Amazon Studios produces shows “responsibly.”
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