OTT Lionsgate Play Invests In Original Content In India

In India’s rapidly growing but aggressively competitive OTT marketplace, the Mumbai-based challenger streaming platform Lionsgate Play— owned by Starz— has launched its second original series to attract viewers. 

A college romance drama series, U Special will be headed up by veteran actor/writer/director Akarsh Khurana as showrunner. The show’s large ensemble cast is lead by Sumeet Vyas, Arjun Mathur, Parambrata Chatterjee, Rukshar Dhillon, Taaruk Raina, Gopal Datt and Ahsaas Channa, among others.

U-Special is set in the lively world of a large university campus filled with youth from all over India. “We live with them, love with them, and share their highs and lows while they build, abandon, rebuild and eventually own their hopes, dreams and ideals,” Lionsgate’s press release mentioned. The show will begin shooting this month.

The series’ launch comes just weeks after Lionsgate kicked off its India originals slate with the announcement of its first local series, an adaptation of the hit Lionsgate U.S. series Casual.

“After receiving a great response to the announcement of the adaptation of Casual, we couldn’t wait to reveal the next series in our line-up of exciting and provocative original programming,” said Rohit Jain, Starz managing director of South Asia. “This series is designed to connect and resonate with young audiences who are our largest demographic.”

Starz launched Lionsgate play in late 2020, looking to tap into India’s fast growing but aggressively competitive streaming landscape. The service competes for subscribers in India against leading local platform Disney+ Star, and international biggies Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, not to mention local players, such as ALTBalaji, Eros Now, Viacom18’s Voot, SonyLIV and Zee5.