The People Who Made India

Everyone wants to be inspired. And nowhere is it as true as it is in an aspirational society like India. Among the 45 books whose rights GSEAMS’ (Global Sports Entertainment and Media Solutions) Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartik D Nishandar have optioned is the Maruti story of RC Bhargava. He was then a young IAS officer commanded by Indira Gandhi to help make an Indian car. The story begins in 1971 with Sanjay Gandhi and then Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal putting the dream in motion, while bending rules and steamrolling the opposition to acquire land and permission for the factory. It will continue to the present when it has become a market leader in automobiles in India, symbolising the rise of the Indian economy from one of chronic shortages to booming vehicle sales. The screenplay based on Bhargava’s book, The Maruti Story: How a Public Sector Company Put India on Wheels, hopes to do with manufacturing what Rocket Boys on SonyLIV did with science. “People want an insight into other people’s lives, whether it is a stockbroker or a politician,” says Nishandar, while mentioning Suhas Shirvalkar’s beloved Marathi novel Samantar, which featured the story of two people with the same palm lines. Samantar was one of GSEAMS’ most popular series in Marathi, a language they have done a lot of work in. GSEAMS has also just announced a show Taali, the first season of which stars Sushmita Sen who plays transgender activist Gauri Sawant, and Rafuchakkar, a conman drama starring Maniesh Paul, and shot across seven states. Sen took six months to read the script but has since mastered it. Both shows are for Jio Cinema, which has taken off with IPL in eight languages free of charge, and will show its slate of 100 movies and web series after the cricket event. Baran and Nishandar believe we are now in the era of TV++, where producers are creating longer web series, upto 100 episodes, and with lower budgets than OTT began with. Jio Cinema’s entry into the OTT space is going to lead to a shakeout, with some platforms looking to merge. Jio Cinema carries content from suppliers, including AltBalaji, Eros Now, Paramount, Shemaroo Entertainment and Viacom18, and currently operates as an ad-driven model. When will it move to subscription is the question everyone is asking.

Massey Sahib

It isn’t always easy to graduate from TV star to hero’s best friend to hero. Very few people have managed that in Bollywood which revels in stereotyping. Vikrant Massey is one of them. After a successful career on TV, he played Dev in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera in 2013, graduating to playing a particular kind of lead role. He’s been a heel in Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (2019), an obsessive lover in Haseen Dillruba (2021), and a nasty piece of work in Gaslight, currently on Disney+Hotstar. He delights in the unconventional, and his forthcoming roles are proof of it. He is in Santosh Sivan’s much anticipated Mumbaikar, an action thriller with Vijay Sethupathi; Sector 36, a crime thriller produced by Dinesh Vijan and directed by Aditya Nimbalkar; Haseen Dillruba’s sequel with Taapsee Pannu and Sunny Kaushal; Blackout, a thriller with Mouni Roy and directed by Devang Bhavsar; and 12th Fail, a fictionalised biopic on the life stories of IPS officer Manoj Kumar Sharma and IRS officer Shraddha Joshi, directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

Scene and Heard

Everyone wants to be a Sanjay Leela Bhansali hero. It gives a much-needed fillip to any actor’s career. So, it was no surprise that actor Sidharth Malhotra wanted to be part of Rowdy Rathore 2. Bhansali was the producer of the first Rowdy Rathore (2012) with Akshay Kumar. But turns out that the script was never offered to Malhotra as there is no sequel in the making at the moment. In Bollywood, lobbying and floating such stories for roles with a handful of big-name directors is not unusual. This is where family networks (acquired through birth or marriage) help. Love sure plays a part in these all-star alliances but it doesn’t hurt to formalise relationships within the industry and rear the next generation of nepo babies, who are groomed for celebritydom from an early age. Catch any fashion red carpet, and all one will see is nepo sisters, nepo wives and their nepo progeny. All you need is a social media account with a substantial number of followers. And the rate at which outsiders are becoming insiders, getting repeated chances makes one question the terms altogether.

BollywoodcinemaSanjay Leela BhansaliSushmita SenVikrant Massey