So, Citadel: Diana, an Italian spin-off from the international Citadel series, will be premiered on October 10, 2024. This is an extension of the original Citadel, which, had a pretty massive budget. $300 million! Just for six episodes. Now, it has returned, but this time it is centered around an entire different part of languages, with the French and English feel to it. The problem? No Hindi audio.
Diana is a spy show, that’s the kind of thing that the mumbakis would watch. We love our high-octane action, espionage, and drama, right? That is incredibly retarded to not have Hindi sound right from the beginning.
Diana should have reached more, maybe even acquired more viewers in india if that easy Hindi button was available. Although, Hindi dubs of global series have seen massive success in India before like Money Heist or Squid Game. They didn’t just perform well they became the part of mainstream conversation.
Honey Bunny, is also going to release in November 2024. They’re probably going to do Hindi audio for that one because it’s basically sucking up to the indian audience but wouldn’t it have made more sense to intro them into the citadel universe in their own language and then translate it to the indian version. There’s a strategic angle here that seems overlooked.
For now, Indian audiences watching Citadel: Diana should only talk in english or italian and subtitles. It works, sure, but could it have been better? Totally. The story would be so much more poignant if you weren’t always jumping between reading subtitles and looking for action on the screen. Maybe Amazon will roll out the Hindi track later, but as of now, it feels like they missed an opportunity to really capitalize on the Indian market from day one.