Huma Qureshi stars in the next Netflix India Original Leila, directed by Deepa Mehta and more. Watch the teaser now.

If you missed the low key teaser release of Leila like us a month ago, now is the time to watch it. The six episodes series by Netflix India is directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman, and Pawan Kumar, and produced by Priya Sreedharan and Wasim Khan. While Huma Qureshi plays the role of Shalini, the cast also includes a personal favourite Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, Arif Zakaria, Sanjay Suri, and Seema Biswas.

Leila, is based on a novel by Prayaag Akbar, the Kolkata based writer, who was awarded the jury Crossword Book Award in the fiction category for the novel.  It was also shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize.

Set in dystopia, members of elite castes strive towards purity, in race and social status. The plot is centred around Shalini, who falls in love with a Muslim man called Riz. Much to their families’ chagrin, she changes her religion and they get married, to find a life in a district with gated communities divided by their caste, religion and income. A few years later, Riz is murdered in an honour killing and their three year old daughter Leila suddenly lost after Shalini is seized and taken to a government-sanctioned reform camp.

Shalini may have had enough giving up in her life though. For years she’s secretly schemed how to find her daughter again amidst an aggressively conservative and strict system. And it’s time Shalini must search for Leila, the daughter she lost one tragic summer sixteen years ago. How similar would the series be to the book? Watch the teaser.

It’s time to watch the desi version of Margaret Atwood’s ​The ​Handmaid’s Tale dystopia story. The series releases on Netflix on 14 June 2019. Add it to your watchlist here.