Netflix 'Sacred Games' star Saif Ali Khan opens up on playing a cynical cop in first Indian original series
Netflix has been branching out in a million directions, but at the moment, one of their priorities for this month happens to be their upcoming crime drama, 'Sacred Games' - the streaming giant's first original web series to be made in India. Starring prominent Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan in the lead role, the show has further become a subject of all conversation over the involvement of director Anurag Kashyap, known for critical hits like 'Black Friday', 'The Lunchbox', and 'Ugly'.
'Sacred Games' based on the titular book by Vikram Chandra, is set in the financial capital of India, Mumbai, and follows a cynical Bombay Police officer Sartaj Singh (Khan). Eager to prove his mettle as a cop, Singh's life takes a turn for the better or worse when he receives a tip from infamous gangster Ganesh Eknath Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). With a catalog of criminal acts under his belt, Gaitonde is set to take Singh on a roller coaster of a ride, by the end of which, though, the earnest officer will realize that he has just less than a month to save the city.
"A link in their pasts leads an honest cop to a fugitive gang boss, whose cryptic warning spurs the officer on a quest to save Mumbai from cataclysm," a description for the Netflix series teased.
While this would indeed mark a huge leap for the streaming giant as it ventures into the international market, making more original content, the step is quite a starter for Khan as well, who was more than eager to bank on the opportunity. “I had heard Netflix was doing something in India and I thought as Illuminati films (his production house), we should do something in that space. I thought it would be great to do a mafia show, more than a love story or a comedy," the 47-year-old actor told The Indian Express, opening up about his upcoming stint as a cop on the Netflix series.
“It should be a show about cops and the mafia but, of course, presented in a new way. So when I was offered the show, I thought I would’ve done exactly the same thing but was offered as an actor, so I jumped at it,” he explained.
With it's more localized story and a cast comprising the best of talents in the Indian film industry, 'Sacred Games' is bound to be a head turner - something that the streamer's Vice President of International Originals, Erik Barmack believes can make for "sweeping narratives".
"We’re trying to create stories that people are really going to want to binge on, and so we’re looking for sweeping complex narratives, which Sacred Games certainly is," Barmack said adding, "We wanted to find a show that touched on a number of issues that we thought were relevant to modern society, not just India, but on a global basis, and its discussions on crime, its discussions on religion, on media, all these things combined made for a super interesting narrative.
'Sacred Games' will be available for streaming on Netflix from July 6.