2017 will be the year of web shows

Last year entertainment found new ways and mediums to spread their wings Netflix came on board in January 2016 and changed the view of entertainment as we knew it Among Indian providers Hotstar Voot and Eros Now mdash the concept of original content is yet to surface Midyear Ekta Kapoor announced her new digital platform Alt Balajiand TVF who have been ripping the digital space with Permanent Roommates and Pitchers last year came out with a new series Tripling Amazon Prime has just joined the market as competition to Netflix and has signed up with Bollywood and television directors to create original content for the web Herersquos what you can expect this yearTokyo TrialsIrrfan Khan will be seen in Netflixrsquos Tokyo Trials where he plays a judge from Calcutta The series is based on the trial that took place in 1946 post World War II Eleven judges from all over the world were called to Tokyo to decide the fate of 28 Pacific war criminalsDefendersAfter Daredevil Luke Cage and Jessica Jones Marvel is all set to start the new year with Iron Fist and The Punisher However the highlight is that they are also putting together an ensemble series titled Defenders Netflix will have its own Avenger seriesNimrat Kaurrsquos untitled seriesAlt Balajirsquos first is set against the backdrop of the Indian Army Directed by Nagesh Kukunoor this digital series stars Nimrat Kaur She will be playing the role of the first woman preparing to be inducted in a combat role in the Army It is created by Ekta Kapoor and Samar Khan The shoot will start in midJanuary We are looking forward to seeing Nimrat play an army officer especially with her army background and the return of Nagesh in an offbeat spaceTheir second show Romil and Jugal is based on William Shakespearersquos classic Romeo and Juliet with a twist Itrsquos a love story between two boys Romil hails from a Punjabi family and Jugal plays the character of a Tamil Brahmin Nupur Asthana who previously directed the YRF film Bewakoofiyan is helming the projectEkta has teamed up with Ken Ghosh for another version of Devdas albeit Dev DD This series will see a female take on the Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay classic set in modern times It traces the story of the young and rebellious Devika and her journey through life with love passion heartbreak sex selfdestruction and redemptionRent Dot ConDirected by Ruchir Arun Rent Dot Con is a comedy set in Mumbai in the mould of Delhi Belly but told with a contemporary context Present by Pocket Acesrsquo Dice Media the makers are also coming back with the season two of Mithila Palkar and Dhruv Sehgalrsquos Little Things Season 2 in 2017Girl in the CityMithila Palkar aka Meera Sehgal will be back on Bindass this March with Season 2 of Girl in the City After being forced to go back to Dehradun she breaks out of her mould and convinces her parents to finally let her goThe Man in the High CastleThe first season of The Man In The High Castle became a rage Seeing the response the makers are bringing season 2 Besides this Amazon has also teamed up with Indian directors to create original content Neerja fame director Ram Madhvani is now teaming up with Prasoon Joshi and Sunil Doshi to make a series on Bodhi Dharma mdash Master of ShaolinR Madhavan and Amit Sadh of Sultan fame are coming together for a series titled Breathe Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar are doing three projects titled Powerplay based on IPL matches Mirzapur and the third one in collaboration with Zoya Akhtar and Reema KagtiBisht PleaseTVF gave some excellent content last year For 2017 theyrsquove planned to release three to four original shows The first will be Bisht Please with Nidhi Bisht as the lead and is directed by Biswapati Sarkar who wrote Pitchers and Permanent Roommates BP is the story of an average girl with an average job and daily struggles The show is touted as Indiarsquos first female character driven show on webDesi TV showsDil Se Dil TakThe show starring Siddharth Shukla Rashami Desai and Jasmin Bhasin talks about surrogacy It will mark the return of the popular actors on ColorsPeshwa BajiraoSony TV is back trying to experiment more with period shows The daily soap stars Raza Murad Siddharth Nigam and Pallavi JoshiEk Vivah Aisa BhiThis is the story of a young girl who lives with two mothersinlaw The show also marks the return of popular actor Tasneem Sheikh along with Himani Shivapuri on ampTVWoh Apna SaZee TV will have Sudeep Sahir Ridhi Dogra who is coming back to daily soaps in a lead role after almost three years and Disha ParmarHar Mard Ka DardLife OK plans to concentrate on male oriented shows The show starring Faisal Rashid and Jinal Belani is all about men trying to understand what women want