Netflix has just announced that it has greenlit an eight-episode original series called Heaven’s Forest, which will be a high-octane animated version of the Indian epic, Ramayana.
According to the OTT platform and its crew of wise men, the melange of twists, turns, action and drama that makes up the Ramayana automatically lends itself as raw material for a compelling Web series.
The upcoming series has been created and written by Warren Ellis, who’s also the writer-creator of Castlevania. He is even the co-producer of Heaven’s Forest, along with Adi Shankar and Kevin Kolde, also his his co-producers on Castlevania.
The animation of the series will be helmed by Powerhouse Animation, which is again the animation team that has worked with Ellis on Castlevania. The narrative is set in an Indo-futuristic world, as described by Netflix in its official announcement.
Ellis began writing the series almost a year ago, and shooting will begin soon. Heaven’s Forest will feature a mostly-Indian cast. The series will be in English, and will be translated in Hindi and other languages, including Indian regional languages.
India is a highly lucrative market for streaming giant Netflix, given its burgeoning digital viewership. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, had famously declared in the August of 2018 – “The next 100 million subscribers for us is coming from India”. With that aim in mind, Netflix, in recent times, has left no stone unturned to capture maximum eyeballs in India.
Right from greenlighting scores of Netflix originals, homegrown in India, to creating more India-centric content, including commissioning Indian stand-up comedy acts, it has definitely gone the whole hog to lure Indian viewers into its fold.
Heaven’s Forest seems to be another step in that direction. Let’s see how that pans out in the future.
Watch this space for further updates on Netflix’s Heaven’s Forest.
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