SonyLIV unveils slate of originals: Sudhir Mishra, Karthik Subbaraj to helm projects

Mumbai: Streaming platform SonyLIV on Saturday announced a line-up of their upcoming India originals, including new seasons of acclaimed shows like "Rocket Boys", "Maharani" and "Scam".

FilmmakersSudhir Mishra, Hansal Mehta, Karthik Subbaraj, Onir, Nikkhil Advani, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Rahul Dholakia will be helming different shows for the streamer.

The announcement was made at a grand event of SonyLIV to celebrate the second anniversary of its relaunch.

In its new avatar, SonyLIV 2.0 is expanding its content offering with over 50 Hindi and 50 other language premium content, the company said in a press release.

Mishra will direct "Tanaav", backed by Applause Entertainment. Co-directed by Sachin Mamta Krishn, the project is billed as a "socio-political action drama with family at its core".

It will be headlined by Manav Vij, Sumit Kaul, Rajat Kapoor, Shashank Arora, Arbaaz Khan, Zarina Wahab, Ekta Kaul, Waluscha De Sousa, Danish Hussain and Satyadeep Mishra, among others.  According to the official synopsis, "Tanaav" is set against the idyllic backdrop of Kashmir in the year 2017 and tells the story of a special unit, their bravery and courage.

Besides "Tanaav", Mishra is attached as showrunner on "Jehanabad – Jail Break and Heart Break" and "Children of Freedom". He will also serve as creator and director of "Summer of ’77 – Children of Freedom".

Filmmaker Onir will helm "Pulwama Key No 1026", an eight-episodic series based on author and journalist Rahul Pandita's book "The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur".  The series is a tribute to all those martyrs "whose dreams were blown to smithereens the minute the suicide bomber's car hit the bus," the brief read.

The streamer is bringing new seasons of popular shows, including Abir Chatterjee-starrer "Avrodh 2", Huma Qureshi-starrer "Maharani 2" and "Scam 2003: The Telgi Story", directed by Mehta and Tushar Hiranandani.

Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh's period science drama "Rocket Boys ", created by Advani, is returning with its second season. Directed by Abhay Pannu, the show also stars Regina Cassandra and Dibyendu Bhattacharya.

Advani is also attached on the political thriller drama series "Freedom at Midnight" for the streamer.  Iyer Tiwari will helm "Faadu", written by Saumya Joshi. The series stars Saiyami Kher and Pavail Gulati.

Filmmakers Sajid Ali and Archit Kumar will helm "Dr. Arora", a dramedy show that will document "the interesting life and times of a travelling sex consultant". It will feature Kumud Mishra, Gaurav Parajuli, Vivek Mushran, Ajitesh Gupta, Vidya Malvade, Sandeepa Dhar and Shekhar Suman.

Dhulia is attached as a creator on "Garmi", while Nila Madhav Panda will create and direct "Jengaburu – A Billion Dollar Curse". Rahul Dholakia will helm "India’s First Election".

SonyLIV will also foray into Tamil originals with its first web-series "Meme Boys", with Gokul Krishna attached as the showrunner. Created by Rajiv Rajaram and Drishya Gautam, the show features Guru Somasundaram, Badava Gopi, Aadhitya Bhaskar, Siddharth Babu and Jayanth.

Subbaraj is attached as a showrunner on "Kaiyum Kalavum", which is created by Rohit Nandakumar. The show stars Sanchana Natrajan, Rohit Nandakumar, Madonna Sebastian, Senthil and Karu.

It is billed as a series of "serendipitous events" which bring together a "compulsive thief and an unlucky pickpocket inching closer to being in love with every act of theft they commit".

Director Arivazhagan will helm "TamilRockerz", headlined by Arun Vijay, Vani Bhojan and Ishwarya Menon among others.  "When the notorious piracy group, Tamilrockerz publicly announce their plan to leak the massively budgeted and highly anticipated, 'Garuda', 'Athiradi Star' Adithya's next movie, a special team headed by Rudra, a cop with a scarred past, must fight against time, unruly fans, and an anonymous network of cyber pirates to secure the movie," the brief of the show read.  Other Tamil originals include the anthology "Victim", starring Amala Paul and Priya Bhavani Shankar, "Journey", "Accidental Farmer & Co" and "Iru Dhruvam 2".

Filmmakers Vikas Bahl, Soumik Sen and Manish Hariprasad are attached to shows like "Good Bad Girl", "Jazz City ’71 – Fight for Language" and "Main Sahir Hoon", respectively.