Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jubilee’ on Prime Video, An Indian Prestige Period Piece About Hindi Cinema’s Origins

Prime Video continues its high output of Hindi-language content, tapping Vikramaditya Motwane (who helmed Netflix’s hit Sacred Games) for a new prestige-style story about the origins of Bollywood, set against the 1947 Partition. Motwane told Variety that peak prestige series like Game of Thrones, Mad Men and Breaking Bad inspired him to tell a story about the Indian film industry in the 1950s. Did those influences create India’s next big hit in Jubilee?

JUBILEE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The series opens with an old-timey credit sequence followed by black-and-white photos of two of the leads who own the central film studio, with a voiceover telling their lore and history in a way that invokes a documentary aesthetic.

The Gist: In the midst of the Indian subcontinent’s partition in 1947 that later formed the modern-day countries India and Pakistan, film studio head Srikant Roy (Prasenjit Chatterjee) is on the hunt for a new studio star to launch under the moniker “Madan Kumar.” Roy zeroes in on Muslim stage actor Jamshed Khan (Nandish Singh Sandhu) and sends his righthand man Binod Das (Aparshakti Khurana) to cajole him into accepting the role. But Khan’s connections to the company extend deeper, and Das has ulterior motives that erupt against the backdrop of the fiery riots.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The period piece about the film industry that would eventually become Bollywood, filled with backstabbing characters and perilous relationships, harkens back to Om Shanti Om, but takes a much more serious tone than the Shah Rukh Khan vehicle.

Our Take: It’s immediately clear from the styling and cinematography that Jubilee is made with an eye for detail and flair. From the period piece costuming and dim, though warm, lighting of the era, the series invokes a seriousness that echoes Motwane’s earlier hit Sacred Games. And Jubilee is serious: set during the Indian subcontinent’s 1947 Partition, the Prime Video series plays into the chaos of the time where religion was no doubt a hurdle for Muslims in the Hindu-dominant region (“Khans don’t become stars,” Binod says early on as they look for a face to inhabit “Madan Kumar” — a tongue-in-cheek harbinger of today’s Hindi cinema industry, where Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and more have topped the box office).

The actual story of Jubilee is a bit convoluted in the early goings, introducing many characters whose roles aren’t fully defined within the show’s first hour. While both Nandish Singh Sandhu (who plays Jamshed) and Sidhant Gupta (as Jay Khanna, another figure in the Roy Talkies circle) give fantastic performances, their boyish good looks are similar enough to occasionally get tripped up about whose arc is whose. Aditi Rao Hydari shines as Srikant’s wife Sumitra, an equal owner of the company willing to walk away from the riches for true love; Wamiqa Gabbi as the courtesan Nilofer is radiant in a song-and-dance and biting in the aftermath.

Like many prestige shows before it, Jubilee is a slow burn. The pilot introduces many plot points around the Roy Talkies company as the characters vye for their own advances, backstabbing and brown-nosing their way to the top. If you enjoy complicated power dynamics, strong characters, and historical accuracy, Jubilee should be your next binge.

Sex and Skin: Nilofer, a courtesan, promises to be a prominent character in the mix and sex is heavily implied amongst the characters, but there’s nothing explicit in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Srikant stands over Binod, with defamatory photos in his hand while Binod weeps on the floor after giving a performance of a lifetime. Srikant looks at the photos, contemplating whether to throw them in the fire, then pockets them instead to use as future leverage.

Sleeper Star: Khurana as Binod plays the innocent charmer and the calculating companyman with a great ease that made even the expected character turns feel surprising and earned.

Most Pilot-y Line: “If I have to choose between saving my marriage and saving my studio, I will save my studio,” Srikant lays his cards on the table to Binod, even though he ultimately wants power over both entities.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Though there are a lot of character threads at play, the larger arc is a promising story about dreams, passion, and vengeance.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.