Zee Studios releases line up of 28 titles featuring Ajith Kumar, Salman Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Ajay Devgn

Ajith in a still from Thunivu

India's leading media conglomerate Zee Studios has revealed a massive 2023 slate of 28 titles across languages, featuring some of the best-known names in their respective industries. The line-up includes 26 films for theatrical release, a direct-to-digital film and a streaming series, which are Zee Studios productions, coproductions or acquisitions.

Mega releases include H. Vinoth's Tamil-language heist thriller 'Thunivu', starring megastar Ajith Kumar that is due for January 2023 release during the Pongal festival frame; Amit Sharma's long-awaited Hindi-language soccer epic 'Maidaan', starring Ajay Devgn, due in February; Farhad Samji's Hindi-language action-comedy 'Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan', starring superstar Salman Khan, due in April during the Eid festival frame; and 'Gadar 2', a sequel to Anil Sharma's 2001 blockbuster 'Gadar' starring Sunny Deol.

The titles, which include 26 films for theatrical release, a direct-to-digital film and a streaming series, are Zee Studios productions, coproductions or acquisitions.

Big ticket films include H. Vinoth's Tamil-language heist thriller 'Thunivu', starring megastar Ajith Kumar that is due a Jan. 2023 release during the Pongal festival frame; Amit Sharma's long-awaited Hindi-language soccer epic 'Maidaan', starring Ajay Devgn, due in February; Farhad Samji's Hindi-language action-comedy 'Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan', starring superstar Salman Khan, due in April during the Eid festival frame; and 'Gadar 2', a sequel to Anil Sharma's 2001 blockbuster 'Gadar', starring Sunny Deol. Deol also stars alongside fellow veterans Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty and Jackie Shroff in Vivek Chauhan's 'Baap'. Other Hindi-language highlights include Rani Mukerji in Ashima Chibber's 'Mrs. Chatterjee v/s Norway'; Richa Chaddha in Abhishek Acharya's 'Covid Stories'; Yami Gautam in Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's streaming-bound 'Lost'; and Rahul Bose, Ishwak Singh and Aparshakti Khurana in Atul Sabharwal's 'Berlin'.

Zee Studios has also announced an extensive array of big-ticket releases in Hindi. Anurag Kashyap's 'Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat' that premiered at Marrakech in November and 'Kenedy', starring Sunny Leone, which is bound for an A-list festival in 2023 along with auteur Devashish Makhija's 'Joram' which shall have its world premiere at Rotterdam in 2023. It stars Manoj Bajpayee, who also headlines Apoorv Singh Karki's 'Bandaa'. Another one features Nawazuddin Siddiqui essaying a transgender role in 'Haddi', who also stars in 'Love is Blind'. Karishma Kapoor headlines Abhinay Deo's streaming series 'Brown'.

Zee Studios' Tamil-language slate include Muthaiya's "Kather Basha Endra Muthuramalingam," starring Arya; a landmark film from the superstar actor, details of which are under wraps; and Kishor Pandurang Belekar's dialogue-free film "Gandhi Talks," with music by A.R. Rahman, featuring Tamil cinema stars Vijay Sethupathi, Arvind Swami and Aditi Rao Hydari. Apart from this, Dulquer Salmaan headlines Abhilash Joshiy's Malayalam-language "King of Kotha."

Marathi-language films include Paresh Mokashi's "Vaalavi," with Swapnil Joshi and Ashish Bende's "Aatma Pamphlet," while Nagraj Manjule stars in Hemant Awtade's "Ghar Banduk Biryani" and Vikram Patwardhan's "Frame."

Jaggesh stars in Kannada-language 'Ranganayaka' and in Telugu-language 'Vimanam'. Zee Studios' Punjabi-language films include Pankaj Batra's 'Uchiyan Ne Gallan Tere Yaar Diyan' and 'Godday Godday Chaa', starring Gippy Grewal and Sonam Bajwa respectively.

Also Read: Thunivu: Ajith, Manju Warrier-starrer second single 'Kasethan Kadavulda' out now

In an exclusive conversation with Variety, Shariq Patel, CBO, Zee Studios, added, "As a pan India media company Zee is a leading broadcaster across geographies and languages. In 2020 the studios strategy pivoted to dovetail into the larger organization play. We were already leaders in Marathi films, we added Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malyalam and Punjabi into the regional mix. The initial response has been very encouraging with films like 'Valimai' (Tamil), 'Bangarraju' (Telugu), 'Dharamveer' (Marathi) performing well not just at the box office but also in driving subscriber growth on the OTT [streaming] platform and delivering healthy ratings on television," Zee Studios chief business officer Shariq Patel told Variety. "The strategy remains to make films across languages. We have a mix of tentpole and art house films and each film will have a unique marketing and release plan. I am often asked by directors and producers as to what kind of films I am looking to greenlight at any point of time. My answer is always the same. First is I have no idea what will click, in this business no one does, despite claims of knowing. Secondly as a studio I have to do it all, so for every ‘Thunivu' starring Ajith Kumar or a ‘King of Kotha' with Dulquer we will have a ‘Mrs. Chatterjee v/s Norway' with Rani Mukerji or ‘Joram' with Manoj Bajpayee," Patel added. "We need to make it all, we work with Anil Sharma (‘Gadar 2') and also with Anurag Kashyap (‘Kennedy'). We just have to ensure each film we are working on is budgeted correctly and the economics make sense. In addition we also have a series ‘Brown' directed by Abhinay Deo starring Karisma Kapoor which is in post production and we propose to make more such premium series in the coming year."

He further stated, "We have segmented our films according to size/scale/genre. And each film's marketing and release strategy is crafted in a unique way. While a majority of them are for India theatrical release, we have made conscious investments in a set of films which we hope to take to the world via festivals i.e. ‘Joram' by Devashish Makhija, ‘Gandhi Talks,' a silent film starring Vijay Sethupathy and Arvind Swami, ‘Kennedy' by Anurag Kashyap are a few examples. We aspire to establish Zee Studios as the pre-eminent studio for Indian films," Patel said.