Emmy Award-winning drama Homeland is coming to its close and lately, there has been a renewed interest in Nikkhil Advani’s POW — Bandi Yuddh Ke. For the unversed, the 2016 show was based on popular Israeli series Hatufim, which in turn was the source material for the Claire Danes-starrer Homeland. Nikkhil's show featuring Purab Kohli and Satyadeep Mishra was praised by one and all when it aired on Star Plus and its OTT counterpart Hotstar. However, amid the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, audience couldn't help but notice that the show has been missing from the streaming giant for the past three years.
When Nikkhil was asked about the show not being available on the Internet, he told a leading daily, "Its rights rest with the Israeli media house, Keshet Media Network. Hotstar had struck a deal with them to adapt Hatufim in Hindi, but it was restricted to only one round of airing. Now, Keshet has an India office too, so Hotstar or any other network that is interested in the show can buy the rights from them."
In fact, many people don't know that the show, which had a 110-episode run on television, was specially made into a 40-episode series for OTT viewers. Now Nikkhil is hopeful that the political thriller is acquired by a streaming service so that the audience can rediscover the show. "I always envisioned it as a close-ended miniseries. I knew how the story would end when I started working on it. Despite being a TV show, it had the tonality of a web series. Had it released now on a streaming service, the audience's response would have been different," he signed off by saying.
(Source: Mid-Day)
