India Debuts at Berlinale Series With Excel, Tiger Baby’s ‘Dahaad,’ ‘Brown’ Lands at Series Market Selects

This year’s Berlinale Series, a key component of the Berlin Film Festival, will feature India’s debut on the platform, Excel Entertainment and Tiger Baby’s “Dahaad” (“Roar”).

Directed by Reema Kagti (Amazon Prime Video series “Made in Heaven”) and Ruchika Oberoi (Venice winner “Island City”), “Dahaad” is the first Indian series to premiere at the Berlinale and compete in the Berlinale Series Competition.

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The series features well-known Indian actors Sonakshi Sinha, Vijay Varma, Gulshan Devaiah and Sohum Shah in the lead roles.

Set in a small, sleepy town in Rajasthan, western India, “Dahaad” is an eight-part, slow-burn crime drama that follows sub-inspector Anjali Bhaati and her colleagues at the local police station. When a series of women are mysteriously found dead in public bathrooms, Bhaati is tasked with the investigation. At first, the deaths appear to be clear-cut suicides but as the cases unravel, Bhaati begins to suspect that a serial killer is on the loose. What follows is a game of cat and mouse between a seasoned criminal and an underdog cop as she pieces together evidence before another innocent woman loses her life.

Ritesh Sidhwani, Zoya Akhtar, Kagti and Farhan Akhtar produced “Dahaad.”

Kagti co-wrote Zoya Akhtar’s film “Gully Boy” that was a Berlinale selection in 2019.

“Dahaad” will stream later this year. While a streamer has not been revealed yet, Excel has a long-standing existing relationship with Prime Video and a multi-year partnership with Netflix. Excel is also exploring a partnership with the Russo Brothers.

Coming up from Tiger Baby and Graphic India is Zoya Akhtar’s Netflix film “The Archies,” co-written by Kagti.

Meanwhile, Zee Studios’ “Brown,” created by Suri Gopalan and Abheek Barua and directed by Abhinay Deo, has been chosen for Berlinale Series Market Selects. It stars Karisma Kapoor, Surya Sharma and Soni Razdan and follows Rita Brown, a suicidal alcoholic and Arjun Sinha, a widower with survivor’s guilt, who must push their personal demons aside to find a serial killer whose belief in his divine purpose makes him unstoppable. Zee is also handling global sales.

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