Jubilee (TV Series)

''Jubilee'' is an Indian Hindi-language period drama television series on Amazon Prime Video. The series is created and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, produced by Andolan Films, Phantom Studios and Reliance Entertainment. This series stars Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aparshakti Khurana, Sidhant Gupta, Aditi Rao Hydari, Wamiqa Gabbi and Ram Kapoor. The series released on 7 April 2023.

At the 2023 Filmfare OTT Awards, ''Jubilee'' received a leading 17 nominations, including Best Drama Series, Best Actor in a Drama Series (Khurana and Gupta), Best Actress in a Drama Series (Gabbi) and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Chatterjee), and won a leading 9 awards, including Best Director in a Drama Series (Motwane).

Plot

Exactly a month before the Partition of India, bonafide producer Shrikant Roy, who owns the studio Roy Talkies, in Bombay, is in search of a new actor to debut in his latest film, ''Sunghursh'', as the protagonist. He hopes to give the pseudonym, 'Madan Kumar', to the performer selected. A theatre actor, Jamshed Khan, is selected. Jamshed is in an extra-marital affair with Sumitra Kumari, a high-profile Bollywood actress and Roy's wife. They both plan to run away to Karachi. Binod Das, the projector boy of Roy Talkies and Roy's right-hand man, is sent to Lucknow to bring both Jamshed and Sumitra back to the studio.

On the train ride to Lucknow, Binod meets playwright Jay Khanna, Jamshed's best friend, whose family own a theater company in Karachi. Binod tries to convince Kumari to go back to Bombay with him, but she remains steadfast in her decision and does not budge. Binod meets Jamshed, who is about to act in a theater production of ''Hamlet'', using a different alias. He indirectly threatens Jamshed of the repercussions of not acting in Roy's new film. Soon, Jamshed sneaks out of the theater to leave for Karachi by train. When riots break out as a result of announcing the Partition, Jamshed is unable to find a ride to the train station. Binod offers him a ride, however, not before Jamshed comes upon Binod's true identity. Jamshed attacks Binod, causing the car to swerve out of control and crash in the street. Binod extricates himself from the wreck, leaving Jamshed trapped inside.

Revealing his plans to take up the mantle of Madan Kumar for himself, Binod beats Jamshed unconscious. However, a group of rioters come upon them, and Binod manages to escape before he is found by Jay. With Binod and Jay watching from a nearby alleyway, the rioters attack Jamshed, beating him senseless before carrying him away and killing him. Upon returning to Bombay, Binod tells everyone that Jamshed went to Karachi. When questioned by Roy, he succeeds in distracting him by auditioning in front of him. Highly impressed, Binod is selected for the role and given the screen name of ‘Madan Kumar’. But Sumitra Kumari is suspicious of him, and unsuccessfully attempts to sabotage Binod's screen test. Roy managed to get photographs of Binod beating Jamshed unconscious in Lucknow, which he keeps. Meanwhile, Jay, whose family has lost their theater company and house in Karachi, come to Bombay as refugees. He aspires to make it big as a director with his story, ''Taxi Driver'', for which he wanted to cast Jamshed. He falls in love with the tawaif, Niloufer.

Jay's script is rejected by Roy, solely for the hero being poor. He then tries to narrate it to Roy's financer, Shamsher Walia, but gets rejected again, as Walia does not want to produce films. After Roy and he get into a fight, Jay confronts Walia for his inability to take risks. Walia agrees and produces Jay's film, helping him create his own studio. Jay and Walia are eventually pitted against Roy and Madan Kumar. After ''Taxi Driver'' is released to rave reviews, Madan tries to get Niloufer on his side by casting her in his next film, ''Raj Mahal''. She is more than happy as she admires Madan. They begin an affair, which Jay soon learns of. He later has a public spat with Madan, which makes it into the news.

Jay, in turn, takes Sumitra Kumari as the heroine for his next film, ''Baiju Awara''. The film is a runaway hit, for its instant connection with the middle class, while ''Raj Mahal'' flops badly, as Roy changed the story last minute to suit Madan and Niloufer's real-life scandal. Jay becomes a huge star. Pratap Singh, a teacher who had helped Jay after the partition and now works in his studio wants to get him married to his daughter Kiran. But Jay still loves Niloufer and comforts her after her split from Madan. He's also mesmerized by the new technology of cinemascope that is about to get introduced by Roy. Roy invites him to work with him but Walia is against it as the film would involve American technology and Jay is in an agreement with the Soviet government.

Madan meets with the Soviet representatives, promising them that his younger brother Naren Das will play the lead role in their propaganda films under his aegis. To break free of Roy Talkies, Madan uses a fake government letter to persuade Roy (a frequent gambler) to invest all of Roy Talkies' money into cotton stocks, then alerts the Income Tax Department. The police subsequently raid Roy Talkies and place Roy under arrest. Distraught at Madan's betrayal, Roy kills himself, but before doing so prepares an envelope for Sumitra. Within the envelope, Sumitra finds photographs which prove that Madan killed Jamshed. Madan is charged with murder which tarnishes his image. Jay is called to court as a witness, but he lies as a pay-off for Madan saving him during the riots and their earlier friendship, claiming that Madan was trying to rescue Jamshed Khan from the car and only knocked him unconsciousness so he would not suffer a painful death at the hands of the rioters. A distraught Sumitra commits suicide.

A phone call of Jay and Niloufer gets recorded by the Soviets, in which Jay admits that Madan did not try to rescue Jamshed and instead left him to die. Pratap Singh uses the call to blackmail Jay, and to save his studio and career he marries Kiran, abandoning Niloufer in Pune. Binod retires from acting and leaves Bombay with his wife, while his younger brother Naren runs away from home and becomes a beggar on the streets of Bombay. With both its owners dead, Roy Talkies is shut down.

Cast

* Prosenjit Chatterjee as Srikant Roy
* Aditi Rao Hydari as Sumitra Kumari, Roy's wife
* Aparshakti Khurana as Binod Das / Madan Kumar
* Sidhant Gupta as Jay Khanna
* Nandish Sandhu as Jamshed Khan
* Wamiqa Gabbi as Niloufer "Nilo" Qureshi, a tawaif, prostitute and film actress
* Ram Kapoor as Shamsher Singh Walia
* Shweta Basu Prasad as Ratna Das, Binod's wife
* Sukhmanee Lamba as Kiran Singh Sethi
* Arun Govil as Narain Khanna, Jay's father
* Aarya Bhatta as Nanik Jotwani
* Ajay Dutta as Hemant Ganguly
* Tushar Phulke as Janak Mehta
* Narottam Bain as Maqsood
* Alok Arora as Raghu Jhalani
* Harish Chhabra as R. N. Mullick
* Madhu Sachdeva as Bhagwanti Khanna, Jay's mother
* Chirag Katrecha as Naren Das, Binod's brother
* Pankaj Jha Kashyap as Lucknow Inspector
* Edward Sonnenblick as Vladimir Sayadyants
* Akshay Batchu as Shyam Khanna, Jay's younger brother
** Aryavart Mishra as Young Shyam
* Suhani Popli as Meena Devi, Niloufer's friend
* Ashok Banthia as Pratap Singh Sethi, Kiran's father
* Amit Trivedi as a singer in the song "Dil Jahan Pe Le Chala" (cameo)

Soundtrack

The songs for the series were composed by Amit Trivedi, while the background score was composed by Alokananda Dasgupta. Kausar Munir had written all the lyrics.

Release

On 17 March 2023, Amazon Prime Video announced the release date with a first look and teaser, and it was released on 7 April 2023.

Reception

Shubhra Gupta of ''The Indian Express'' writes "''Jubilee'' deftly takes us back to that black-and-white era when studios were the real power-centre, owning their stars lock, stock and barrel".

Saibal Chatterjee of ''NDTV'' praised the series, giving it 4.5 stars out of 5.

Accolades

See also

* List of Amazon India originals
* List of Amazon Prime Video original programming

References

External links

*
''Jubilee''
on Amazon Prime Video
{{Amazon Video original series

Hindi-language television shows
2023 Indian television series debuts
Amazon Prime Video original programming
Television shows set in India
Television series set in the 1940s
Television series set in the 1950s
Partition of India in fiction
Indian courtesans drama series
Indian prostitution TV series