Amazon Prime Video‘s Tandav has become the most highly anticipated show of the new year 2021. Set to release on 15th January, the series boasts a thrilling premise, eclectic cast and skilled crew. Tandav is a political thriller, created along the lines of hit American political drama, House of Cards. The story and screenplay has been written by Gaurav Solanki, co-writer of the compelling Bollywood movie, Article 15.
The series is being directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, the director of Bollywood hits such as Bharat, Tiger Zinda Hai, Gunday and more. Tandav will mark Ali Abbas Zafar’s debut in the digital space. Given the pedigree of the writer and director, we can safely say that Tandav will be as compelling as Solanki’s earlier Article 15, if not more.
However, the upcoming series has seen its fare share of controversies and red flags along the way to its streaming premiere. A major controversy stirred up by Tandav’s writer Gaurav Solanki raised lead actor Saif Ali Khan’s heckles, early in 2020.
Solanki had raised a red flag some time ago about his not being involved in the creative process of the making of the series. That controversy had been silenced by Saif himself when the actor publicly announced, “Neither Solanki nor I can tell a director what to do. He is the boss. If Ali decides to say, please walk into the room backwards, it’s your job to do it. Unless he feels that the material has been tampered with, this shouldn’t even be a conversation.”
Solanki never raised the matter again.
Then again in May, Saif Ali Khan spoke up to deride the title of the series. For those who don’t know, Tandav was earlier named ‘Dilli’ by the makers. It received wide spread publicity too, by the name of Dilli. But the Nawab of Pataudi didn’t like the title. In fact, he was not at all pleased with the title of the series as ‘Dilli’. As he said in an interview with a media publication, “I hope it’s not eventually called Dilli. Taandav was the working title which captured more the essence of what the show was about. Dilli is a little thanda really. I don’t think we have either titles, Dilli or Taandav. We have to work hard to come up with something a little sexier like House of Cards. Something with a little more poetry to the title than just a geographical location.
Well, the streaming platform and the makers seem to have paid heed to Saif Ali Khan, coz they went back to calling it Tandav, after Saif’s tirade.
However, not all news regarding Tandav is controversial. A happy news is that the series has been green-lit for Season 2 long before the premiere of Tandav Season 1 – in May 2020, in fact. That’s some confidence Amazon Prime Video has on the show!
Tandav boasts a huge ensemble cast, including Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Kumud Mishra, Gauahar Khan, Amyra Dastur, Dino Morea, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub, Kritika Kamra, Sarah Jane Dias, Sandhya Mridul, Annup Sonii, Hitten Ttejwani, Paresh Pahuja and Shonali Nagrani among others.
Tandav arrives on Amazon Prime Video on 15th January. Stay tuned to Binged.com for more news on Tandav.
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