Jubilee is an Indian Hindi-language period drama television series on Amazon Prime Video. The series is co-created and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane along with Soumik Sen and produced by Andolan Films, Phantom Studios and Reliance Entertainment. The series featured an ensemble cast of Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aparshakti Khurana, Sidhant Gupta, Aditi Rao Hydari, Wamiqa Gabbi and Ram Kapoor. Set during the late-1940s and early-1950s, during the partition of India, the series is a fictionalized story exploring the lives of studio owners, stars and two aspiring individuals as they navigate ambition, betrayal and love in the Hindi film industry.
The idea of Jubilee was originated in late-2013 as Motwane discussed with his partners in Phantom Studios on the popularity of web series and this prompted to develop a story set during the golden period of Hindi cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Motwane discussed with Atul Sabharwal to create a story based on his idea, while providing additional inputs from Hartej Sawhney and Nishant Agarwal, and had several real life incidents being fictionalized for the narrative. Following an extensive pre-production and casting process, along with the delays of COVID-19 pandemic, the series was shot from December 2021 to early 2022 in a span of 90 days. It was filmed by Pratik Shah, edited by Aarti Bajaj and scored by Alokananda Dasgupta, while also featuring a soundtrack composed by Amit Trivedi and written by Kausar Munir.
Jubilee was premiered in two parts with the first five episodes premiering first on 7 April 2023 and the remaining five episodes being premiered a week later. The series' received acclaim for the story, screenplay, direction, performances and the technical aspects which helped in recreating the period era, but received criticism for the length and writing of female characters. It received nine Filmfare OTT Awards, three Indian Television Academy Awards and an Asian Academy Creative Award amongst other accolades.
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)
Episodes
Production Development The idea of Jubilee originated during late-2013 when Motwane discussed with his partners at Phantom Films regarding the legacy of popular television shows such as Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad and felt that they spoke more about these shows than the films being made, which in turn led him to think about developing a series that focused on the golden age of Indian film industry. He then shared his idea to Atul Sabharwal to develop a story for the project. While Motwane was directing Sacred Games for Netflix. Sabharwal then wrote 10 drafts for the scripts for each episode within one year, as each draft for an episode takes around 2–3 days for writing specifically. Motwane who had likened Sabharwal's story had pitched a pilot episode for Amazon Prime Video who had officially greenlit the project. Motwane claimed that Aparna Purohit, the head of Amazon India originals had been supporitve in making the series, and the executives of Amazon and the crew also shared positive feedback for the project.
Motwane's liking to the film's of the 1940s and 1950s era, and celebrities who were popular in that era Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Ashok Kumar, Nargis and Madhubala, led him to set this period for the series. He also considered the ambitions of the storytelling and creative ideas fleshed out during that time, excited them, prompting to create a fictional world for the series similar to Mad Men. However, he did not want to focus on the echo-chambery of the films or too reliant on in-jokes but instead focus on a character-driven narrative.
Motwane considered the story to be partly urban legend and from stories that people had heard of "how certain directors worked in the past or how a certain actor had to leave for a certain reason". Later he also documented the geo-political situations in that period, the conditions in the refugee camps soon after partition and the Russian-American influences and how Russians being fascinated with Indian cinema also helped in shaping the narrative. Sanghamitra Chatterjee, co-founder of Past Perfect Heritage Management, also involved in the pre-production sharing her ideas and insights of India during the 1940s and 1950s through a coffee table book. Motwane added that a lot of research has been went on recreating the period from vehicles, locations, sets, music and other elements. The second season was greenlit after the first season's success, but in 2024, it was reported to be cancelled owing to budget constraints, though Wamiqa Gabbi, a year later, had clarified that the season was still in writing stage.
Casting