Picture: Sithara Entertainments and Fortune Four Cinemas
Netflix’s newest Indian Original Film Maharaj took a trip through the Indian legal system before it was finally cleared for release. It joined other June catalog additions, like the third season of the Netflix Original Series Kota Factory and the Bollywood action flick Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, which flopped at the box office but is actually pretty fun.
If you missed our roundup for last month – you missed two new movies and one series. We also published our HUGE Indian slate preview for the next year, too.
N = Netflix Original
New Indian Movies on Netflix: June 2024
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024)
Languages: Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, & Telugu
Runtime: 162 Minutes
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Prithviraj Sukumaran
Genre: Action, Science Ficition | Added to Netflix: June 5
Ex-soldiers Freddie (Akshay Kumar) and Rocky (Tiger Shroff) are pressed back into service when a vital Indian security asset is stolen by a mad scientist who used to be their friend. This globe-trotting action spectacle has a goofy vibe — personified by Alaya F’s wacky professor Dr. Pam — that’s enjoyable if you’re willing to leave your brain at the door. The large-scale action sequences in director Ali Abbas Zafar’s (Jogi) film are somewhat uneven, but the fight scenes are uniformly good. Fans of explosions will delight in the volume offered by Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Additional language options can be selected in the film’s audio menu.
Gangs of Godavari (2024)
Languages: Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, & Tamil
Runtime: 133 Minutes
Director: Krishna Chaitanya
Cast: Vishwak Sen, Anjali, Neha Shetty
Genre: Gangster Drama | Added to Netflix: June 13
Gangs of Godavari is the third feature film by writer-director Krishna Chaitanya. Vishwak Sen stars as Tiger Rathna, a man of flexible morals who wants to rise in the cutthroat world of politics. But his cold-blooded greed could cost him everything — even his life.
LSD 2 (2024)
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 119 Minutes
Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Cast: Paritosh Tiwari, Bonita Rajpurohit, Abhinav Singh
Genre: Anthology, Drama | Added to Netflix: June 13
LSD 2: Love Sex aur Dhokha 2 is a spiritual sequel to director Dibakar Banerjee’s 2010 film Love Sex aur Dhokha. Like the original, the follow-up is an anthology of three loosely connected short stories roughly 40 minutes in length. The film opens with a story about a controversial reality show contestant, followed by the fallout of a trans woman’s assault on her way home from work, and ending with a story of a Twitch streamer who’s hacked by deepfake porn. All three explore contemporary digital life and its overlap into the sphere of entertainment, using things like YouTube clips, news broadcasts, and webcam footage to tell the stories. It makes for a jarring visual and narrative presentation that may not appeal to everyone.
Maharaj (2024) N
Languages: Hindi, English, & 10 more
Runtime: 131 Minutes
Director: Siddharth P. Malhotra
Cast: Junaid Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Shalini Pandey
Genre: Based on a True Story, Historical Drama | Added to Netflix: June 21
The release of Netflix’s new Hindi Original film about a significant historical court case was, ironically, delayed by a court order for one week. Maharaj tells the story of social reformer and journalist Karsandas Mulji, who reported on sexual abuse by the leader of his religious sect in 1862. The sect leader sued Mulji for libel, and the outcome of the case set an important legal precedent in India. Current members of the sect aimed to stop the release of Maharaj — which is largely based on Saurabh Shah’s 2013 book of the same name — but a judge determined that there was “nothing objectionable” about the film. Almost a dozen additional dialogue options can be selected from in the film’s audio menu, including descriptive audio tracks in Hindi, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Latin America).
Bhaje Vaayu Vegam (2024)
Language: Telugu
Runtime: 133 Minutes
Director: Prashanth Reddy
Cast: Kartikeya Gummakonda, Rahul, Iswarya Menon
Genre: Thriller | Added to Netflix: June 27
Two brothers from a village near Hyderabad are desperate for cash to save their ailing father’s life. With just 24 hours to secure the funds they need, they head to the big city and align with dangerous men who lie, cheat, and steal and convince the brothers to do the same. Soon enough, Dad isn’t the only member of the family fighting for his life.
New Indian Series on Netflix: June 2024
Kota Factory (2024) N
Languages: Hindi, English, Tamil, & Telugu
Seasons: 3
Episodes: 15
Cast: Mayur More, Jitendra Kumar, Ranjan Raj
Genre: Drama | Added to Netflix: June 20
After two seasons following the lives of students at a coaching center in Kota as they train to take the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) entrance exam, it’s finally time to take the test! While the latest season still focuses on the challenges faced by students of different economic means, it also delves into the emotional struggles of supportive instructor Jeetu Bhaiya (Jaadugar‘s Jitendra Kumar). This series proves just how gorgeous a modern series can look while shot entirely in black & white. Additional dialogue options are available in Kota Factory‘s audio menu.
Which of these newly added Indian movies and series will you be watching? Let us know in the comments below!
