EXCLUSIVE: Showtime is the series that’s going to uncover all of Bollywood’s best-kept secrets, as we told you back in December.
Now, we’ve got the first official trailer for the Disney+ Hotstar drama series and a launch date: March 8. Watch the trailer above. The trailer shows everything we might expect: studios, stars and power brokers.
A newsreader calls out “nepotism” among the Bollywood set, while an angry Emraan Hashmi says privately: “I know all of this was handed to me, but I’ve worked day and night to get this studio to where it is!” He’s the boss of Viktory Studios and he is not happy with his lot.
Hashmi and Mahima Makwana star alongside Mouni Roy, Rajeev Khandelwal, Shriya Saran, Vishal Vashishtha, Neeraj Madhav, Vijay Raaz and Naseeruddin Shah.
The Dharmatic Entertainment-produced series comes from Sumit Roy, with Mihir Desai the showrunner and director. Archie Kumar is also a director and Roy, Mithun Gangopadhyay and Lara Chandni have penned the screenplay. Jehan Handa and Karan Shrikant Sharma wrote the dialogue.
“Showtime is a show that showcases so many different shades of the industry,” said Karan Johar, Founder and Managing Director, Dharmatic Entertainment. “While there’s showbiz, glitz, glamour, drama it also touches upon the unspoken emotional rollercoaster that people go through behind the sets. The show is an attempt to bring audiences closer to the lives of people in the industry and to show what goes behind the making of a show/movie. It has a little bit of everything and there’s no better place than Disney+ Hotstar to tell such a story.”
Creator Roy added that every character will feel recognizable,” but Disney+ Hotstar and Dharmatic are keeping specific plot lines under wraps for now, so we’ll have to wait to see if any obvious Bollywood tales have been adapted.
“Having been in the industry for years, we wanted to tell a story like Showtime that spills the tea about what goes on behind the scenes in Bollywood — [and] gives you the masala behind our masala movies,” added Roy. “The show is an insider account of the glitter, glamor, ego battles and power struggles in the world of showbiz. We wanted the sets to reflect the grandness of Bollywood and give audiences a larger than life experience.”
Gaurav Banerjee, Head – Content, Disney+ Hotstar & HSM Entertainment Network, Disney Star said: “The ensemble cast have come together beautifully to give life to what we can confidently say is here to entertain Bollywood fans with a no holds barred behind the curtains drama that is explosive and entertaining.”