Disney+ Hotstar launches originals slate including The Empire

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Disney+ Hotstar has announced a slate of 20 originals in various Indian languages, including The Empire, an adaptation of Alex Rutherford’s Empire Of The Moghul historical novels. 

The eight-part series has Nikkhil Advani as showrunner and stars Kunal Kapoor, Dino Morea, Shabana Azmi and Drashti Dhama. 

New series also include Six Suspects, an adaptation of Slumdog Millionaire writer Vikas Swarup’s novel of the same name, starring Pratik Gandhi, Richa Chadha and Ashutosh Rana; and Rudra: The Edge Of Darkness, a crime drama starring Ajay Devgn and Esha Deol.

The new slate also includes four films: war epic Bhuj: The Pride Of India, starring Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha and Sanjay Dutt; crime thriller Collar Bomb, starring Jimmy Shergill; comedy Hungama 2, with Shilpa Shetty Kundra; and horror comedy Bhoot Police, starring Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor and Jacqueline Fernandez. 

“The content slate demonstrates our relentless pursuit of bringing original and locally relevant stories to our consumers,” said Disney+ Hotstar president Sunil Rayan. “With our fresh slate of movies and shows, we are proud that India’s top stars and industry stalwarts have chosen to debut with us to present stories that are genre-defining.”

Similar to strategies adopted by Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar will introduce a $6.8 (Rs499) yearly mobile-only plan starting September 1. The streamer’s content offering also includes live streams of major cricket, tennis, football and F1 tournaments.

Other new series include: 

Aarya (Season 2) – family crime drama, starring Sushmita Sen.

City Of Dreams (Season 2) – political drama, starring Priya Bapat, Atul Kulkarni, Eijaz Khan and Sachin Pilgaonkar.

Criminal Justice (Season 3) – crime drama, starring Pankaj Tripathi.

Dance Plus – dance reality series with Remo D’souza.

Escaype Live – tech thriller, starring Siddharth, Javed Jaffrey and Ritvik Sahore.

Family Matters – mystery thriller, starring Murali Sharma, Nandu, Akshara Gowda and Sonia Agarwal.

Fear 1.0 – supernatural thriller, starring Tisca Chopra, Saurabh Shukla and Rajesh Tailang.

Gharshana – crime drama, starring Naveen Chandra, Sarath Kumar and Jagapathi Babu.

Human – medical drama, starring Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari.

The Legend Of Hanuman (Season 2) – animation series with voice by Sharad Kelkar.

My Perfect Husband – family drama, starring Sathyaraj.

Those Pricey Thakur Girls – romantic comedy, starring Akshay Oberoi, Saher Bamba, Raj Babbar and Poonam Dhillon.

Special Ops 1.5 – espionage thriller, starring Kay Kay Menon.