In an article from The Hollywood Reporter, it was reported that Amazon is working on new WWII series set in India. With working title The Forgotten Army, this new series joins the various other productions Amazon is working on with and for India, with hopes that the production quality and stories will equal international appeal. In December, when Amazon Prime launched in India, Amazon announced they were working on 18 Indian originals, from all different genres, with nine shows in production and nine shows still in different stages of development.
The story will take place during and after WWII, during India’s fight for independence, after being under British colonial rule for decades. It will follow historical Indian figure Subhash Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army. Considering the scale of the production, it is expected to be in both the English and Hindi language.
To direct the series will be Indian director Kabir Khan, who has directed India hits such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan, as well as the upcoming Tubelight, a film about the 1962 India-China war, starring actors from both China and India.
Nitesh Kripalani, Head of Amazon Prime Video for India said the following in December when the 18 originals were announced:
India is the only international market where 18 Amazon originals have been announced right from the word go. It’s the largest number of shows announced at one time for one market. We want to tell our customers new, fresh, relevant and engaging stories that are smartly written and intelligent. We want the content creators to think about that one project they have always wanted to make, without worrying about length, number of episodes, etc.
Roy Price, the Head of Global Content at Amazon Prime Video, said the following at MIPTV last week, about Amazon’s plan to create content for specific foreign markets:
We’re trying to replicate the Amazon Studios mentality from L.A. around the world, growing teams in India, Tokyo and London as regional development hubs to lead an international originals effort.
There has been an effort lately by American studios to create localized content for certain countries/languages, as foreign markets have expressed their frustration with exclusively ‘western’, American stories being produced by Hollywood. Netflix is working on its own Indian series Sacred Games, which will be a Hindi-English language series, and expected to be released in the US as well as India. The difficulty of producing content for India is that there are over 40 different language, not just dialects (although the bigger Bollywood productions are in Hindi). But we are certainly likely to see more of this new foreign content in coming years.
Stay tuned for more about The Forgotten Army, as well as international productions from Amazon, as many will be available in the US, as well as in India.