The global entertainment studio, International Art Machine (IAM), has tied up with Preity Zinta and Dibakar Banerjee to roll out content after it makes its debut with ‘The Immortals of Meluha’, helmed by celebrated director Shekhar Kapur, as already reported by IANS.
Preity Zinta joins the growing line-up of stars, such as Madhuri Dixit, Raveena Tandon and Sushmita Sen, who have returned to showbiz after a sabbatical via OTT platforms. Her comeback project is the thriller, ‘The Kitty Party’.
“‘The Kitty Party’ is a female-driven murder mystery that moonlights between being a dramedy and thriller,” Zinta said to ‘Variety’, adding that it’s “too early to comment more except that we cannot wait to get started”.
Zinta, whose credits include such memorable films as ‘Dil Se’, ‘Veer Zaara’ and ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’, is also the co-owner of the IPL team, Punjab Kings.
Next up is the political drama ‘Gods’ from Dibakar Banerjee, who’s known for his films ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’, ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’, ‘Shanghai’ and ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’, apart from the Netflix series ‘Lust Stories’,
“‘Gods’ is an Indian story in a way that can only happen in India,” Banerjee said to ‘Variety’. “It centres around the Great Indian Family. The generations. The power play. The family politics. I am finally getting my secret wish — a family soap that will upend the genre — and channeling some of the best of Indian TV from the 80s and the 90s.”
International Art Machine, according to ‘Variety’, is led by former Amazon Studios president Roy Price, who resigned from his position in 2017 following allegations of sexual harassment.
“Our goal is to partner with creators across Asia to produce series that will be game changers at home and successfully carry the banner of Asian originals abroad,” Price said in a statement.
Heading international television for the company is the former vice-president and development head of Balaji Motion Pictures, Karishma Naina Sharma. She said: “We are exhilarated to be kicking off our journey in India with such a powerhouse of talent and are looking forward to exploring India’s vast array of story-tellers and artistes.”
