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Race hots up: Netflix announces two India originals – ‘Selection Day’ & ‘Again’
MUMBAI: The race hots up. Close on the heels of Amazon Prime and vying with 30-odd other OTT / VoD players in India, Netflix too has announced two new original series from India — Selection Day and Again.
The former is based on the book by the acclaimed author Aravind Adiga (White Tiger) and the latter, a supernatural, female-led detective series set in New Delhi and written by Marisha Mukerjee (of Quantico fame).
Amazon Prime recently launched its first original — Inside Edge — with all of its 10 episodes across 240 countries. Inside Edge has been produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment and the storyline brings together the world of cricket and entertainment.
Amazon’s 17 more originals are in various stages of development. “We are trying to get three to four originals beyond Inside Edge in a few months (this year) since there are different projects in various stages of development (casting or post-production, etc),” Amazon Prime country head Nitesh Kripalani had told Indiantelevision.com.
Netflix too is gung-ho. “We are excited to be expanding our slate of originals in India. These projects have specifically local subjects, but will be great for our global audience, and are supported by world class talent.” said Erik Barmack, vice president of international original series at Netflix.
Selection Day, a compelling story of cricket and corruption, is based on Booker Prize-winning author Aravind Adiga’s novel of the same name. This coming of age tale depicts the glory and rivalry in the city of Mumbai.
Fourteen-year-old Manjunath Kumar knows he is good at cricket — if not as good as his elder brother Radha. He knows that he fears and resents his domineering and cricket-obsessed father, admires his brilliantly talented sibling and is fascinated by the world of CSI and by curious and interesting scientific facts. But there are many things about himself and about the world that he doesn’t know. When Manju begins to get to know Radha’s great rival, a boy as privileged and confident as Manju is not, everything in Manju’s world begins to change and he is faced with decisions that will change both his sense of self and of the world around him.
Selection Day will be produced in partnership with Seven Stories.
“When I first read Selection Day I was completely overwhelmed by the scale and ambition of Aravind’s vision – and moved to my core by its emotional power.….” said Anand Tucker, CEO of Seven Stories. “We are delighted to be working with Netflix on what feels like a new chapter in the age of global storytelling, and we are bowled over by Erik and his team’s passion for this story.”
Seven Stories is the UK based production company of Directors Sharon Maguire and Anand Tucker, and is part of the ALL3Media group.
Set in the busy and colourful city of New Delhi, detective series Again tells the story of a female homicide detective who must put her career and life on the line when a recent murder connects to closed cases from her past, proving she has a serial killer on her hands. As she seeks justice, the answers she uncovers along the way not only affect her life, but also challenge the faith, beliefs, and relationships of everyone surrounding her.
“When it comes to telling groundbreaking evocative stories, I cannot think of a better partner than Netflix to bring this show to India and to audiences across the globe” said Marisha Mukerjee. “Again not only speaks to my own duality and cultural heritage, but also to the universal grey that exists between life and death, where religion intersects justice.”
All leading OTT / VoD players seem to be eyeing a significant share of the 70-million unique connected video viewers (F&S) in India.
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iWorld
Bill Ackman makes a $64bn bid for Universal Music Group
The hedge fund boss wants to list the world’s biggest record label in New York and thinks he knows exactly what ails it
NEW YORK: Bill Ackman wants to buy the world’s biggest record label. Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund run by the billionaire investor, submitted a non-binding proposal on Tuesday to acquire all outstanding shares of Universal Music Group in a business combination transaction worth roughly $64.4 billion (around 55.8 billion euros).
Under the terms of the offer, UMG shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, equivalent to 5.05 euros per share, plus 0.77 shares of a newly created company, dubbed New UMG, for each share held. Pershing Square values the total package at 30.40 euros per share, a 78 per cent premium to UMG’s closing price on April 2.
The deal would see UMG merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. New UMG would publish financial statements under US GAAP and become eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion. Pershing Square says the transaction is expected to close by year-end, with all equity financing backstopped by Ackman’s firm and its affiliates, and all debt financing committed at signing. The transaction would cancel 17 per cent of UMG’s outstanding shares, leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion shares outstanding.
Ackman has a long history with UMG. Pershing Square first bought approximately 10 per cent of the company from Vivendi in the summer of 2021 for around $4 billion, around the time of UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. He has since trimmed that position, raising around $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7 per cent stake in March 2025, and resigned from UMG’s board in May 2025, citing new executive and board obligations arising from recent investments.
His diagnosis of UMG’s troubles is blunt. The company’s stock has fallen around 33 per cent over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and Ackman lays out six reasons why. These include uncertainty around the Bolloré Group’s 18 per cent stake in the company, the postponement of UMG’s US listing, the underutilisation of UMG’s balance sheet, the absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm, a failure to reflect UMG’s 2.7 billion euro stake in Spotify in its valuation, and what Ackman calls suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications and engagement.
The Bolloré stake has long cast a shadow over the company. Cyrille Bolloré stepped down from UMG’s board in July 2025 as the Bolloré Group battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi, which holds a further capital interest in UMG. UMG had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025 for a proposed secondary listing in America, but put those plans on hold in March 2026, citing market conditions.
Ackman has kind words for UMG’s management, at least. “Since UMG’s listing, Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” he said. But he made his diagnosis plain: “UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”
In other words, Ackman believes UMG is a great business trapped inside a broken structure. If the board agrees, he intends to fix that, loudly and in New York.
