11:06 PM PDT 3/16/2021
by
Patrick Brzeski
The show, a college-set romantic drama, is Lionsgate Play’s second original series set up in India, as the streamer works to secure market share in a high-growth but fiercely competitive landscape.
Lionsgate Play, the Mumbai-based streaming service operated by STARZ, unveiled its second original series Wednesday targeting the fast-growing India market.
A college romance drama series, U Special will be headed up by veteran actor/writer/director Akarsh Khurana as showrunner. The show’s large ensemble cast is lead by Sumeet Vyas, Arjun Mathur, Parambrata Chatterjee, Rukshar Dhillon, Taaruk Raina, Gopal Datt and Ahsaas Channa, among others.
U-Special is set in the cheerful, quirky and vibrant world of a large university campus filled with young people from all over India. “We live with them, love with them, and share their highs and lows while they build, abandon, rebuild and eventually own their hopes, dreams and ideals,” Lionsgate’s summary said. The show will begin shooting this month.
The series unveiling comes just a few weeks after Lionsgate kicked off its India originals slate with the announcement of its first local series, an adaptation of the hit Lionsgate U.S. series Casual.
“After receiving a great response to the announcement of the adaptation of Casual, we couldn’t wait to reveal the next series in our line-up of exciting and provocative original programming,” said Rohit Jain, Starz managing director of South Asia. “This series is designed to connect and resonate with young audiences who are our largest demographic.”
Starz launched Lionsgate play in late 2020, looking to tap into India’s fast growing but fiercely competitive streaming market. The platform’s initial offerings included Love Life starring Anna Kendrick, Syrian civil war series No Man’s Land, and films like Jennifer Lopez starrer Hustlers and Gerald Butler vehicle Angel Has Fallen. The service competes for subscribers in India against Disney’s leading local platform Disney+ Star, and fellow heavyweights Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, not to mention an array of local operators, such as ALTBalaji, Eros Now, Viacom18’s Voot, SonyLIV and Zee5.
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