'Betaal' is part of the streaming giant's slate of five upcoming shows from the likes of leading Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, director Alankrita Shrivastava, Chernin Entertainment and Endemolshine, among others.


Netflix continues to build on its India offerings, unveiling five upcoming shows spanning multiple genres, including a colonial-era horror series from Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's banner Red Chillies Entertainment, which will be executive produced by Blumhouse and Ivanhoe.


Betaal is the second collaboration between Netflix and Red Chillies since they launched their partnership with spy drama The Bard of Blood, which will stream worldwide on Sept. 27. The streamer's other newly announced Indian series are dramas largely focused on female-centric themes. While release dates were not given, the shows will be streamed worldwide, possibly early next year.


Betaal is set during British colonial rule in a remote village where a two-century-old evil spirit, a British Indian army officer and his batallion of zombie redcoats are unleashed. Patrick Graham, who previously helmed another Netlflix horror series, Ghoul, will serve as showrunner and writer-director on Betaal, along with director Nikhil Mahajan and writer Suhani Kanwar.


Alankrita Shrivastava, known for her award-winning 2017 breakthrough film Lipstick Under My Burkha, will write and direct urban female drama Bombay Begums. The show revolves around five women from different generations who wrestle with desire, ethics, personal crises and vulnerabilities to own their ambition. The show will be executive produced by Chernin Entertainment and Endemolshine India.


Netflix's slate also includes another female-oriented drama, Mai, backed by Clean Slate Films, the banner headed by leading Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and her brother Karnesh Sharma. The show will follow Sheel, a middle-aged wife and mother, who battles white-collar crime and politics, which forever changes her and the world she inhabits. Mai is written by Atul Mongia, along with Tamal Sen and Amita Vyas, with Sudip Sharma as creative producer.


American-Indian actor and director Ravi Patel will create and star in comedy drama Messy. It will revolve around Beanie, Mumbai's rising female stand-up comic, who struggles to balance a career in comedy while pleasing a yuppie day-job boss, a peculiar BFF, persistent parents and a proposal-popping boyfriend. Messy is co-created and co-written with Neel Shah and co-produced by the District's David Bernad and Ruben Fleischer and Mutant Films' Seher Aly Latif and Shivani Saran.


The slate rounds off with Masaba Masaba, a scripted series inspired by the real life of leading fashion designer Masaba Gupta, which will also star her mother, well-known actress Neena Gupta. The show is described as an inspirational, joyous celebration of Masaba's life, enacted by the mother-daughter duo. Directed by Sonam Nair, the show is created and produced by well-known producer Ashvini Yardi’s Viniyard Films.


Meanwhile, Netflix's upcoming releases include the much-awaited second season of its first Indian original series, Sacred Games, which will bow Aug. 15.