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Amazon Prime Video's first Bollywood film will star Akshay Kumar

Amazon Prime Video's first Bollywood film will star Akshay Kumar

No release date has been announced for Ram Setu yet.
Updated 19 Mar, 2021

Amazon.com’s Prime Video will co-produce a Bollywood film, it said, marking the streaming giant’s foray into film production in India.

The South Asian nation is one of Amazon’s fastest growing Prime Video markets, where founder Jeff Bezos has said it is doing better than anywhere else in the world.

Amazon Prime Video and two studios will produce Ram Setu, a film starring actor Akshay Kumar, it said in a statement, without mentioning a release date.

“We are delighted to further take a step into co-producing by collaborating with a film that highlights our Indian heritage,” said Vijay Subramanium, the head of content at Amazon Prime Video India.

The film’s title is the Hindi name for Adam’s Bridge, a chain of limestone shoals linking the southern state of Tamil Nadu to the neighbouring island nation of Sri Lanka.

Indian mythology holds that the bridge was built by an army led by the Hindu god-king Rama.

In India, Amazon’s Prime loyalty programme, which offers free delivery, early access to deals during sales and free music and video streaming, costs 999 rupees ($13.77) a year.

Despite its promise, India is also a market in which Amazon recently had to issue a rare public apology for hurting religious sentiment over some scenes in its original TV series, Tandav.

That controversy has put Bollywood, Amazon Prime Video and rivals such as Netflix on edge, prompting closer scrutiny of scripts for possible offence to religious sentiment in a key growth market.

Comments

Roma Mar 17, 2021 06:36pm
amazon is smart to exploit the Indian market though Akshay Kumar does not need anyone to produce a hit film.
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Zak Mar 17, 2021 08:24pm
Irrelevant to us.
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Farcry Mar 17, 2021 10:32pm
Smart people would rather be friendly, cordial and benefit themselves.
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