Bollywood Icon Madhuri Dixit to Make Netflix Series Debut (EXCLUSIVE)

By Naman Ramachandran

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Iconic Bollywood actress, Madhuri Dixit Nene is poised to make her Netflix acting debut with an as-yet-untitled series. Karan Johar is set as creative producer.

The series will be a suspenseful family, written by New York-based writer-director Sri Rao, reflecting on the lives lead by people in the entertainment industry.

Dixit featured in some of the most influential Bollywood films of all time including 1988’s “Tezaab,” 1994’s “Hum Aapke Hain Koun…!,” 1997’s “Dil To Pagal Hai,” and 2002’s “Devdas.” At the height of her fame, she married and moved to the U.S. She relocated back to India in 2011.

The series is being produced by and Dharmatic Entertainment, the digital arm of Indian filmmaker, producer and television personality Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. In September, Netflix entered into a long-term partnership with Dharmatic to create a range of new fiction and non-fiction series and films.

New York based-writer director Sri Rao, whose credits include U.S. television titles “What Goes On,” “General Hospital: Night Shift,” “The Black Widow,” and the Bollywood film “Baar Baar Dekho,” will be the showrunner. Rao previously collaborated with Dixit on a pilot for U.S. network ABC, inspired by her life as a Bollywood superstar-turned-soccer mom in suburban America.

Dixit produced, but does not star in, the Netflix Original film “15 August” that began streaming in March.

“I’ve been working in films for decades now and facing the camera has always been one of my greatest joys. But this is the first time I’ll be working on a series, and I’m both excited and nervous,” said Dixit. “It will be a completely new experience, because while you have to be judicious when telling a story on film, you have the luxury of time in a series.”