Leila is the next Netflix India Original coming our way and the official trailer has been launched today. 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 trailer shows a happy couple in Huma Qureshi and Rahul Khanna with a young daughter. Until she is kidnapped for being a Hindu woman (Shalini) who married a Muslim man (Riz) and had a ‘mixed race’ child. She is put into a cult/ reform camp that praises the Aryavarth as the pureblood. But she escapes one day, on a mission to find her daughter, where she’s aided by Siddharth.
On her mission, she gets to know of ‘Project Balee’ and that the government is behind taking away all ‘mixed race’ children. But will she find her daughter? Watch the trailer here.
Along with Huma Qureshi, Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, the cast also includes Arif Zakaria, Sanjay Suri, and Seema Biswas. Helmed by Deepa Mehta, the six episodes series is directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman, and Pawan Kumar, and produced by Priya Sreedharan and Wasim Khan.
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.