Prime Video announces 69 new titles; Mike Hopkins says India key geography

Mumbai: Prime Video on Tuesday announced its 2024 slate of 69 titles, including brand new shows such as Varun Dhawan's "Citadel: Honey Bunny", Ananya Panday's "Call Me Bae" and Bhumi Pednekar's "Daldal", as well as films like Abhishek Bachchan's "Be Happy" and Anil Kapoor's "Subedaar".

The slate was announced as a part of the Prime Video Presents event here that saw a galaxy of Hindi as well as South cinema stars introduce their movies and shows with filmmaker Karan Johar hosting for the majority of the evening.

More people signed up for Prime Video in India than any other country outside of the US in recent years, Head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios Mike Hopkins said at the event. 

India is one of the key geographies for Amazon, Hopkins added.

"I have a couple of stats to just explain how things are going here. The first one is that for the last several years, outside of the US, more people have signed up for Prime in India than anywhere else in the world. That's pretty good growth.

"The other thing about India is that more people started subscribing to Prime Video here than any other benefit... In the last year, India had the highest percentage of Prime members stream Prime Video than any other country in the world," Hopkins said during a chat with event host Karan Johar.

"We look at that next 250 million subscribers that we're going to acquire, which are definitely going to come from outside the United States. We're not going to be able to achieve that unless we do a really good job for customers in India, so India is a key geography for us," Hopkins said.

He also spoke about the exponential growth that streaming has had in India despite being in the market only for the last few years.

Hopkins said "Farzi", "Indian Police Force" and "The Family Man" are among the shows that have worked well internationally.

"I've heard many people say this week that more people are streaming TV. And they're watching it on linear television and satellite... What's remarkable about it is that streaming has only really existed for seven or eight years," he said.

According to Hopkins, Indian content is making its presence felt on a global level. Last year, he said, Indian titles were watched in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.

He said that while the streamer commissions programming in different parts of the world, the core philosophy has always been that the content should first work with the audience it is made for.

"(In India,) we've really knocked it out of the park. Some of the shows that are working the best for us internationally are 'Farzi', 'Indian Police Force', 'The Family Man' and many more. So we couldn't be more thrilled with what's going on here," Hopkins added. 

The streamer unveiled a total of 27 new shows across Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages; five returning series, including new seasons of "Pataal Lok" and "Mirzapur"; eight original movies, including Boman Irani's directorial debut "The Mehta Boys" and "Chhorii 2" with Nushrratt Bharuccha; and 29 features that will be available on Prime Video post their theatrical run.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shahid Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Varun Dhawan, Ananya Panday, Pankaj Tripathi, Manoj Bajpyee, filmmakers Farhan Akhtar, Vikramaditya Motwane, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, Rohit Shetty, Rana Daggubati, Suriya and many others were in attendance.

"Our content broke new grounds in 2023, helping India remain a frontrunner, across international locales, in new customer adoption and Prime member engagement. We are humbled by the love we have received from our customers, and want every story on our service to be someone's favourite show or movie," said Sushant Sreeram, Country Director, Prime Video, India.

"In sync with this, we are thrilled to unveil our biggest, most diverse slate till date, and are certain that our upcoming series and movies will continue to enthral audiences, not just in India but around the world," Sreeram said.

Aparna Purohit, Head of Originals, India and Southeast Asia, Prime Video, said the aim has been to be a global showcase for "diverse, authentic and rooted Indian stories, that can transcend linguistic and geographical borders".

"In just 2023, our content was watched in over 210 countries and territories in any given week and trended in the top 10 on Prime Video worldwide for 43 of the last 52 weeks," she said.

"As the home for storytellers and talent, we are also excited to partner with some of the most prolific names in Indian entertainment and empower dynamic and new voices to create stories that are fresh, powerful, inspiring and entertaining. We are confident that our upcoming slate of series and movies will pave the way for even more compelling narratives from India to emerge," Purohit said.

The event was also attended by "Fallout" creator Jonathan Nolan and actor Ella Purnell who gave the Indian audiences a sneak peek into their new show based on a popular game of the same name.

The highlights from the new original shows were Panday's "Call Me Bae", Varun and Samanth Ruth Prabhu's "Citadel: Honey Bunny" as well as titles like "Daldal", which marks Pednekar's OTT debut, Ankur Tewari and Swanand Kirkire-created "Bandwale", "Daring Partners" starring Tamannaah Bhatia, "Dil Dosti Dilemma" and "Dupahiya".

 The line-up also features Uorfi Javed's reality show "Follow Karlo Yaar", Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK's "Gulkanda Tales", "Khauf" and Vijay Varma-starrer "Matka King" which is directed by Nagraj Manjule.

"Ma Kasum", "Rangeen", "The Great Indian Code", "The Rana Connection", "The Revolutionaries", Sooni Tarporwala's "Waack Girls", Pritish Nandy's "Ziddi Girls" make up the list.

The original series slate includes "Inspector Rishi" (Tamil), "Arabia Kadali" (Telugu), "Gangs Kuruthi Punal" (Tamil), "Snakes and Ladders" (Tamil), Telugu talk show "The Rana Connection", hosted by "Baahubali" star Rana Daggubati in Telugu.

Besides, the streamer announced "Sivarapalli" and "Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam", the Telugu and Tamil versions of Hindi comedy-drama show "Panchayat".

From the returning titles, Prime Video teased the new seasons of critically-acclaimed series "Paatal Lok", "Mirzapur" and "Panchayat".

"Paatal Lok", "Bandish Bandits" and Tamil show "Suzhal - The Vortex" are returning with their second seasons while "Mirzapur" and "Panchayat" will debut their third chapters.

The eight original movies include Sara Ali Khan's upcoming film "Ae Watan Mere Watan", which is scheduled to hit the streamer's platform on Friday, and Anil Kapoor's "Subedaar" with director Suresh Triveni.

Bachchan's "Be Happy", which highlights the extraordinary lengths a father will go to fulfil his daughter's dreams and find true happiness, comes from Remo D'Souza.

Boman Irani will make his directorial debut with "The Mehta Boys", a film he wrote in collaboration with Oscar-winning screenwriter Alex Dinelaris.

The line-up includes Reema Kagti's directorial "Supermen of Malegaon" and "Chhorii 2" as well as Telugu movies "Cheekati Lo" and "Uppu Kappu Rambu".

Shahid Kapoor will be headlining "Ashwatthama: The Saga Continues", a new action film that will be available for streaming on Prime Video after its release in theatres.

To be directed by Kannada filmmaker Sachin B Ravi, the film is one of the 29 big titles that will be available for streaming on Prime Video after completing their run in theatres.

The list includes Sriram Raghavan's "Ikkis", "Stree 2", Ranveer Singh's "Don 3", Kartik Aaryan-starrer "Chandu Champion", "Kanguva" featuring Suriya, Rishab Shetty's "Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1", "Baaghi 4", "Housefull 5" and Shoojit Sircar's next film.

Rahul Dholakia's "Agni", Vicky Kaushal and Triptii Dimri's "Bad Newz", Vijay Deverakonda's "Family Star", Ram Charan's "Game Changer", "Ground Zero", "Madgaon Express", "Yudhra", "Yodha", "Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya" and "Ustaad Bhagat Singh" are also part of the line-up.