Jubilee is an Indian Hindi-language period drama television series on Amazon Prime Video.[1] The series is created and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, produced by Andolan Films, Phantom Studios and Reliance Entertainment. This series stars Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aparshakti Khurana, Sidhant Gupta, Aditi Rao Hydari, Wamiqa Gabbi and Ram Kapoor.[2][3] The series released on 7 April 2023.[4]

Jubilee
Promotional poster
GenrePeriod drama
Created byVikramaditya Motwane
Soumik Sen
Written byHartej Sawhney
Nishant Agarwal
Screenplay byAtul Sabharwal
Story byAtul Sabharwal
Soumik Sen
Directed byVikramaditya Motwane
Starring
Music bySongs:
Amit Trivedi
Background Score:
Alokananda Dasgupta
Country of originIndia
Original languageHindi
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes10
Production
ProducerDipa De Motwane
CinematographyPratik Shah
EditorAarti Bajaj
Camera setupMulti-camera
Production companiesAndolan Films
Reliance Entertainment
Phantom Studios
Original release
NetworkAmazon Video
Release7 April 2023 (2023-04-07)

At the 2023 Filmfare OTT Awards, Jubilee received a leading 17 nominations, including Best Drama Series, Best Actor in a Drama Series (Khurana and Gupta), Best Actress in a Drama Series (Gabbi) and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Chatterjee), and won a leading 9 awards, including Best Director in a Drama Series (Motwane).

Plot

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Exactly a month before the Independence of India and Pakistan, bonafide producer, Shrikant Roy, who owns the studio, Roy Talkies, in Bombay, is currently on the search for a new actor to debut and act in his latest film, Sunghursh, as the protagonist. He hopes to give the pseudonym, 'Madan Kumar', to the person selected. A theatre actor, Jamshed Khan, is selected. However, Jamshed is currently 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. However, Jamshed secretly sneaks out of the theater to leave to Karachi by train. As the 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, howvever, not before Jamshed mistakenly 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 going back 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 pseudonym of ‘Madan Kumar’. But Sumitra Kumari is suspicious of him, and unsuccessfully attempts to sabotage Binod's screen test. Roy managed to have photographs of Binod beating Jamshed unconscious in Lucknow, before his death, clicked, 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 in. He falls in love with the tawaif, Niloufer.

Jay's script gets 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 him get into a feud, 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.[3]

Cast

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  • 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 actor[5]
  • 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)

Soundtrack

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Jubilee
Soundtrack album by
Released2023
Recorded2022–2023
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length50:03

The songs for the series were composed by Amit Trivedi, while the background score was composed by Alokananda Dasgupta. Kausar Munir had written all the lyrics.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Babuji Bhole Bhaale"Sunidhi Chauhan4:06
2."Dil Jahan Pe Le Chala"Amit Trivedi3:54
3."Nahin Ji Nahin"Papon, Sunidhi Chauhan3:39
4."Vo Tere Mere Ishq Ka"Sunidhi Chauhan5:14
5."Na Koyi Mera"Papon, Vaishali Mhade3:57
6."Chandu Naacha"Swanand Kirkire, Amit Trivedi4:02
7."Udankhatole"Mohammed Irfan, Vaishali Mhade4:14
8."Dariyacha Raja"Mohammed Irfan, Divya Kumar4:05
9."Itni Si Hai Dastaan"Mohammed Irfan, Sunidhi Chauhan2:55
10."Dil Jahan Pe Le Chala (Reprise)"Shahid Mallya3:54
11."Itraati Chali"Mohammed Irfan, Vaishali Mhade3:10
12."Saare Ke Saare Akele"Devender Pal Singh7:05
Total length:50:03

Release

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On 17 March 2023, Amazon Prime Video announced the release date with a first look and teaser, and it was released on 7 April 2023.[6][7]

Reception

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Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express writes "Jubilee deftly takes us back to that black-and-white era when studios were the real power-centre, owning their stars lock, stock and barrel".[8]

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV praised the series, giving it 4.5 stars out of 5.[9]

Accolades

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Year Award ceremony Category Nominee / work Result Ref.
2023 Filmfare OTT Awards Best Drama Series Jubilee Nominated [10]
Best Director in a Drama Series Vikramaditya Motwane Won
Best Actor in a Drama Series Aparshakti Khurana Nominated
Sidhant Gupta Nominated
Best Actress in a Drama Series Wamiqa Gabbi Nominated
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Prosenjit Chatterjee Nominated
Best Original Story (Series) Atul Sabharwal and Soumik Sen Nominated
Best Original Screenplay (Series) Atul Sabharwal Nominated
Best Original Dialogue (Series) Nominated
Best Background Music (Series) Alokananda Dasgupta Won
Best Original Soundtrack (Series) Amit Trivedi Won
Best Production Design (Series) Aparna Sud and Mukund Gupta Won
Best Cinematographer (Series) Pratik Shah Won
Best Costume Design (Series) Shruti Kapoor Won
Best VFX (Series) Arpan Gaglani (Philmcgi) Won
Best Editing (Series) Aarti Bajaj Won
Best Sound Design (Series) Kunal Sharma, Dhruv Parekh Won

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Jubilee trailer: Fame, ambition and desire collide in early years of Bollywood in Vikramditya Motwane's drama series". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Jubilee trailer: Aparshakti Khurana navigates the greedy, shallow lanes of showbiz". The Indian Express. 24 March 2023. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Aparshakti Khurana, Aditi Rao Hydari's web series 'Jubilee' trailer out now". ThePrint. 24 March 2023. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  4. ^ "Vikramaditya Motwane: The budget was the most challenging part of 'Jubilee' apart from the research". The Times of India. 24 March 2023. Archived from the original on 4 January 2024. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  5. ^ "A Deep Dive into Jubilee's Lady -Shaped Problem". 18 April 2023. Archived from the original on 6 June 2024.
  6. ^ "Vikramaditya Motwane: 'Jubilee' A Very Human Story That's True To Its Period". Outlook. 17 March 2023. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  7. ^ "Jubilee Web Series: भारतीय सिनेमा के स्वर्ण युग को दिखाएगी प्राइम वीडियो की नयी सीरीज 'जुबली', जारी हुआ टीजर". Dainik Jagran. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  8. ^ "Jubilee review: A sparkler of a series that captures myths and legends of Hindi film industry". The Indian Express. 7 April 2023. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  9. ^ "Jubilee Review: A Celebration, Homage And Lament Rolled Into One". NDTV. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  10. ^ "Nominations for the Filmfare OTT Awards 2023: Full List Out | Femina.in". www.femina.in. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
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