With the global hit reality format “The Traitors” set for an Indian adaptation hosted by Karan Johar and the highly anticipated third season of “The Family Man” in the works, Prime Video India is doubling down on both international formats and homegrown hit franchises.
In an exclusive interview with Variety, Nikhil Madhok, head of Indian originals at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, revealed the streamer’s ambitious content strategy that balances returning franchises with fresh originals while expanding into theatrical releases for select productions.
“We’re most excited about the third season of ‘The Family Man,’ which just finished shooting. We expect to launch it sometime in the second half of the year,” Madhok said. “It’s been a flagship show for Prime Video, and people have been asking us for the last couple of years. It’s taken us a little longer than originally envisaged to get this new season going.”
In Season 3, Manoj Bajpayee will once again portray the character of Srikant Tiwari, a middle-class Mumbai-based salaryman who is secretly an intelligence officer for the Threat Analysis and Surveillance Cell (TASC), a wing of India’s National Investigation Agency. The series is created by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, together known as Raj & DK, who have another Prime Video show, comedy-fantasy series “Gulkanda Tales,” in the works. “It’s a show which has heavy VFX and world building,” Madhok said.
One of Prime Video’s most anticipated upcoming unscripted shows is the Indian adaptation of global hit format “The Traitors,” hosted by Johar. “It’s a really, really exciting format, which is breaking out globally,” Madhok said of the competition show. “This is a format where we try to balance some of the elements of the global format, which have worked really well, and then add the Indian sort of ‘tadka’ [seasoning] to it. Karan is the kind of person who’s able to, in his interactions as the host of the series, really get into the heads and mind spaces of these contestants.” Madhok added that they’ve carefully selected Indian contestants and localized many of the tasks to better connect with Indian audiences while maintaining what makes the format successful globally.
Prime Video India reached viewers in 99% of India’s post codes, according to the streamer, who also said that in 2024, Indian content trended in the Top 10 on Prime Video worldwide every single week. The service’s 2024 hits have set high benchmarks. According to Prime Video, Season 3 of criminal underworld series “Mirzapur” became the most-watched show ever on the platform in India on its launch weekend and being watched in over 180 countries. Similarly, spy series “Citadel: Honey Bunny” was the most watched series on Prime Video worldwide in its launch weekend, streaming in 200 countries and trending in the Top 10 in almost 150 countries.
Madhok detailed a multi-pronged approach to content development, focusing on franchise expansion while introducing new original series and films across languages. Among returning favorites, “Mirzapur” not only has Season 4 in development but will also expand to theaters with a film slated for 2026. Bucolic comedy-drama “Panchayat” is currently shooting its fourth season, while coming-of-age comedy “Call Me Bae” has been greenlit for a second season.
On the new originals front, Madhok highlighted “Dupahiya,” launching March 7. “It’s about a crime-free village where a motorcycle goes missing seven days before they’re supposed to receive an award from the government for being crime free for 25 years. And that’s what sends the entire village in a tizzy,” he explained. “Really funny, heartwarming, rooted, authentic story, which we’re really excited about.”
Another upcoming series is “The Matka King,” headlined by Vijay Varma. “It’s a sort of crime drama, but very entertaining with a very, very nicely written, flamboyant central character. So looking forward to bringing that. I believe that could be a very interesting franchise for us going forward,” Madhok said.
The platform is also expanding its genre offerings, with particular attention to horror and supernatural content, including “Suzhal – The Vortex” that returns for Season 2 and the upcoming “Andhera.” “This is the first year in which the number of shows which we’re doing in the genre will be much higher than at any time that we’ve done in the past,” Madhok said.
Prime Video’s content strategy extends beyond series to theatrical releases. “The most ambitious moves this year are going to be for us in movies, because we’re taking a bunch of our movies to theaters,” Madhok said. The first of these is Toronto, London, Palm Springs and Red Sea title “Superboys of Malegaon,” releasing Feb. 28.
When asked about balancing established and emerging creators, Madhok emphasized their script-first approach: “We always prioritize scripts over stars, and stars both determined by people in front of the camera and behind the camera.” This philosophy has naturally led to about 50% of their originals featuring new talent either in front of or behind the camera.
On the question of data versus creative instinct in content decisions, Madhok was clear: “At the heart of it, this is a business of creative gut instinct. You need to be able to back a maker’s vision and passion and back a really unique story. That is extremely important.” He acknowledged that while viewer data helps fine-tune decisions, “creative gut instinct is something that’s extremely important to us.”
There are potential regulatory moves for the streaming space in the offing from the Indian government and in response to these, Madhok says, “We have a bunch of content tenets, which are really around, how do you create shows which are deeply entertaining, deeply engaging, that people get inspired from, have fun with. So our attempt is to do this while staying within the laws of the land, and be mindful of the sensibilities of the people. And we’ve noticed that if these three things are in place, we’re able to tell pretty much all kinds of stories that we want to tell.”
