In December last year, Yash Raj Films announced its foray into the OTT sphere. The Aditya Chopra-led premium production banner, known for its big-scale mega theatrical blockbusters, launched a separate content division, called YRF Entertainment, to specifically create and produce global standard web content for various OTT platforms. The new production arm has reportedly been set up with an initial investment of 5 billion rupees, and they have planned to roll out five web series in its first year of operation. Their debut web series, The Railway Men, about human spirits’ perseverance in the face of calamity, is in post-production, eyeing a premiere in December this year on an international streaming platform. With their first project already wrapped up, the production banner is now set to take on floors more of their shows that have been in development for over a year.
"YRF has already locked in their second and third web series, and has roped in filmmakers Akshay Roy and Gopi Puthran to direct them. Both are YRF’s home-grown talents and have directed Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017) and Mardaani 2 (2019) for the company, respectively. The yet-untitled projects are currently in the final stage of scripting and will go on the floor in early 2023. Akshay’s show is a heady relationship drama about love, ambition, and profession, while Gopi’s project is said to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller," an industry source told us, adding that the makers have already started approaching actors and are expected to finalize the lead cast by November.
Akshay Roy’s web series has been billed as a fresh take on relationships and will feature an ensemble cast, comprising mostly young, fresh faces. Acclaimed screenwriter Jaideep Sahni—known for wowing audiences with his impeccable screenplay in films like Bunty Aur Babli, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Chak De! India, and Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year—has been brought on board to write and create this series. Gopi Puthran’s show, meanwhile, is a new-age, genre-defying thriller which promises to be different from all the "strikingly similar" regular thriller dramas we have been witnessing lately on Indian OTT platforms.
Aditya Chopra intends to set the bar for digital content production in India higher with his large-scale, global-standard web shows, coupled with groundbreaking, fresh, contemporary, and engaging storylines rooted in India. Their first web series, The Railway Men, is a one-season limited series that has been made on a budget of over 100 crores. The show has been described as a tribute to the unnamed heroes of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, who, despite saving thousands of lives on that fateful day, remain unknown to people all over the world. R Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon, Divyendu Sharma, and Babil I. Khan play the lead roles in this five-episode series, directed by debutant Shiv Rawail.
