Indian filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, renowned for his landmark films in the gangster genre, is debuting in the streaming space with MX Player series “Dhahanam” (Funeral).
MX Player is India’s largest AVOD service and recently set a content deal with BBC Studios. It has more than 300 Monthly Active Users globally and has achieved the one billion download milestone.
Varma’s iconic films include “Shiva” (1989), “Satya” (1998), and “Sarkar” (2005).
Produced by Varma, “Dhahanam” is directed by Agastya Manju (“Coronavirus”). The cast includes Isha Koppikar, Abhishek Duhan, Naina Ganguly, Ashwatkanth Sharma, Parvathy Arun, Sayaji Shinde, Abhilash Chaudhary and Pradeep Rawat.
Originally made in the Telugu language, the seven-episode series is also dubbed in Hindi and Tamil.
Set in rural India, the series turns on the murder of Sri Ramulu, a communist worker. His son, Hari, is a rebel operating from the forest in a guerrilla war with the landlords and is enraged by the news of his father’s death. He takes it upon himself to hunt down the culprit behind the murder of his father, which leads to a war between the most powerful people in the village.
Varma said, “Thrilled to announce my first ever web series ‘Dhahanam’ in collaboration with MX player. The story runs in a grey area between two contradictory quotes ‘An eye for an eye will only succeed in making
the whole world blind,’ said by Mahatma Gandhi, and ‘Revenge is the purest emotion,’ as quoted in the Mahabharata. ‘Dhahanam’ tells not a story of just revenge, but the story of a circle of revenge.”
“It’s not a crime thriller but it’s about thrilling crimes which are designed to create an adrenaline pumping exhilaration,” adds Varma. “With this show, we have not gone one extra mile, but went many miles with intense method actors living in their roles to do justice to the story’s violent demands.”
“Dhahanam” streams from April 14.
Watch the trailer in Telugu with English subtitles here:
And in Hindi with English subtitles here: