The team behind the SonyLIV drama Freedom at midnight We are taking the story of Indian independence to its second season after the strong response to the first season.
Directed and directed by Nikhil Advani, the story ranges from the tense negotiations over the partition of India in 1947 to the refugee crisis that followed the redrawing of borders, with the first season ending with a cliffhanger following its release this month and setting events. Scene for the second.
“The primary goal right now is to ensure this show spreads as much as possible,” said Danish Khan, executive vice president and chief business officer of SonyLIV and its in-house production arm, StudioNext. “This obviously brings bigger subscriptions and bigger business. If we can do that, Season 2 will be even bigger.”
The second season will consist of eight episodes and will likely be released next year. Khan said the anticipation for the second show was on the rise, but “as a first step, we got to like the show. Nikhil has done the job. Now the SonyLiv team has to take this story to different geographies and across India.”
For SonyLIV, this meant dubbing Hindi-language dramas into Malayalam and Telugu, and offering dubbed versions that replaced the English-speaking roles with Hindi. The focus of the story is the conversations between the retreating British Empire and various religious groups with different views on the future of India. In the first season, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Lady Edwina Mountbatten and Cyril Radcliffe all play important roles. Andrew Cullum will play Attlee, Luke McGibney and Cordelia Buggia will play the Mountbattens, the last Viceroy and Viceroy of India, respectively, Alastair Finlay will play Commander-in-Chief Archibald Wavell, and Richard Teverson will play Cyril Radcliffe, Chairman of the Boundary Commission for the Partition of India.
The cast is led by Siddhant Gupta as Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, Chirag Vohra as Mahatma Gandhi, and Rajendra Chawla as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India.
Reviews of the series were largely good, with praise for the performances and the close attention to detail that Advani and his team paid to the source material, a 1975 non-fiction book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.
“This is a huge production that requires imagination, because we are not one of those platforms that have huge budgets,” Khan said. “We're working on a decent budget, but not a high one, so you need someone who can conceive such a big canvas story on a budget that really suits us and works for the company. That requires a certain amount of very intelligent imagination.”
Advani told Deadline how he told his cast to just work Freedom at midnight During production. “It's not just about handing yourself over to the role. It's just that I didn't want Nehru, Gandhi and Patel to play some love interest in some romantic comedy,” he said. “I benefited from the fact that the entertainment industry in India finally realized the need to Focus on one project at a time.”
Advani's Emmay Entertainment has produced the show in association with StudioNext, marking the latest joint production between the production house and SonyLIV. They initially worked together on another series based on a historical moment in India's past, exploring how the country's nuclear program evolved after achieving independence in the late 1940s. “We never thought of anyone else except Nikhil,” said Khan, recalling how he approached the director after getting the rights to the book. “We asked him if he wanted to do it, and he said, ‘This is my favorite book.’ And that’s where we started.”
Advani noted that the pace of texts was affected West wing, Moneyball and Social network Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. “I'm a huge fan of Aaron Sorkin,” he said. “It simplifies very complex topics,” he said. “As an Indian sitting in Mumbai, with no desire to know more about baseball, I will watch that Moneyball And I can't stop watching it.
Freedom at midnight It is certainly SonyLIV's biggest original release to date, and forms part of an upcoming slate that also includes Season 2 from Applause Entertainment Tanavinternal production shark tank indiaEndemol Shine India Master Chef IndiaSudhir Mishra Summer 77Ram Madhvani The awakening of a nation And Goldie Bahl Civil lines.
Khan noted that the SonyLIV app has been rolled out in 105 countries over the past two years, including full distribution in the US and the UK. A major marketing campaign will take place from April to June next year, and acquisitions such as exclusivity for the Asian Cup have boosted the offer. With Disney and Reliance merging and bringing their streaming businesses into the same fold, this early mover strategy gives SonyLIV the opportunity, at least, to carve out its share of the emerging market.
“We started telling original stories a few years ago with the launch of Scam 1992Which was a huge, runaway success,” Khan said. “Then, the focus was on telling uniquely Indian stories to Indian people and people interested in Indian stories. So far, Freedom at midnight It was the biggest and most important Indian story we could tell, because it was relevant to everyone interested in India.
“The fact that it has gotten a very encouraging response will help us build this platform. Media in India is going through a phase of consolidation.” He admitted that this is a challenge, but added: “On the other hand, good content always finds a headline somewhere.”
