Hotstar Specials' first slate to include Indian adaptations of The Office, Criminal Justice, Hostages

OTT platform Hotstar recently announced  Hotstar Specials in collaboration with as many as 15 film personalities, to showcase original content of varied formats and genres. Now, the platform has unveiled the first four shows of its roster. The shows are Indian remakes of British television drama Criminal Justice, the cult comedy show The Office and Israeli crime thriller Hostages, along with City Of Dreams.  [caption id=“attachment_5402351” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Ricky Gervais in The Office[/caption] According to Indo-Asian News Service, the Indian adaptation of Criminal Justice will be steered by Tigmanshu Dhulia and Vishal Furia and will feature Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi, Mita Vashisht, Anupriya Goenka and Jackie Shroff in lead roles. The Office remake will be helmed by Rohan Sippy, Debbie Rao and Vivek Bhushan and will boast an ensemble cast. Hostages, directed by Sudhir Mishra, will star Ronit Roy, Tisca Chopra and Parvin Dabas. On the other hand, City of Dreams, a political-drama set in Mumbai, will be led by a cast comprising Atul Kulkarni, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Eijaz Khan, Priya Bapat and Siddharth Chandekar. The ambitious project will be directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. Hotstar has also partnered with Applause Entertainment, the content studio from the Aditya Birla Group, for the aforementioned shows. Hotstar Specials is scheduled to launch in March 2019 and be available in seven languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. In January 2019, Star India’s streaming platform collaborated with the likes of Salman Khan, Kabir Khan, Shekhar Kapur, Nagesh Kukunoor, Mahesh Manjrekar, Rohan Sippy and Sudhir Mishra among others for creating original content.