Spoilers Ahead by Rajeev Masand: The world is not enough

India is learning from DC and Marvel. Up next: Series and films set in crossover-friendly cop, spy and horror universes

In just days, Amazon Prime Video is expected to launch its global publicity campaign for Citadel, the streamer’s big play towards establishing a Marvel- and DC-style universe. The first step towards laying the foundation this is this six-part mothership series headlined by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Game of Thrones star Richard Madden.

Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas star in Citadel, a new spy series that will also have Indian, Italian and Spanish sister shows.

Citadel has been described as “an action-packed spy series with a compelling emotional centre”. The Family Man creators Raj Nidimoru & Krishna DK are shooting the Indian, Hindi-language satellite series with Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. An Italian, a Spanish, and a Mexican sub-series are also believed to be in the works, which will together tie in to form the Citadel universe.

Much like the Marvel and DC template, in which Iron Man shows up in a Spider-Man film, and Wonder Woman makes cameos in Batman v Superman, characters from their respective franchises will migrate, cameo, and potentially team up with others within the larger Citadel umbrella.

Maddox Films’ Bhediya failed to drum up as much excitement as horror-comedy Stree.

It’s a big gamble for Amazon, but streamers are seeing merit in investing big, rather than spending as much or more to license the rights to other studios’ superhero and action franchises for a limited time. In June, Netflix will unveil Extraction 2, sequel to their 2020 action smash starring Chris Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda.

Bollywood is not lagging far behind. Yash Raj Films, in shrewdly introducing Salman Khan’s character Tiger (from the Ek Tha Tiger films) in Pathaan, has paved the way for a spy universe that will likely include Hrithik Roshan’s character Kabir from War. If the hysteria triggered in cinemas when Shah Rukh Khan and Salman showed up together was any indication, one can only imagine the level of excitement when Hrithik joins the Khans on screen.

The failure of Bhediya had to be a spoke in the wheel for the folks at Maddock Films, who are building a horror-comedy universe piloted by the first Stree that came out in 2018. The Rajkummar Rao and Aparshakti Khurrana cameos, at the end of Bhediya, confirms that director Amar Kaushik has been working on interlinking the films. Next, he’s directing Stree 2; there is also a vampire comedy starring Ayushmann Khurrana and a monster movie titled Munjha that are in the works.

Rohit Shetty is building his own cop universe. After establishing both Ajay Devgan’s character (in two Singham films), and Ranveer Singh’s character in Simmba, he showed how the ‘universe’ could work when he brought both gentlemen in to add star wattage to his Akshay Kumar actioner Sooryavanshi. Shetty is expanding his universe to play out on streaming too.

Rohit Shetty’s series Indian Police Force aims to take his ‘cop universe’ further.

He recently finished shooting Indian Police Force with Sidharth Malhotra, which will run as an original series on Amazon Prime Video. Devgan, Singh, and Kumar’s characters from their respective films may make a special appearance in the series, which could also introduce a new cop character in Vicky Kaushal. All of it will tie in with the agenda of launching material for both cinemas and streamers.

If truly the only thing that is constant is change, then the industry’s creative leaders might do well to plan way ahead, so that when the audience has had enough of every ‘universe’ thrown at them, the next genius hack will be ready to be rolled out.