Netflix will be dropping its epic new Indian Original series Bard of Blood today (Friday, September 26). The show comes after the success of Mumbai thriller Sacred Games with the show proving to be a huge hit with audiences. Bard of Blood has been adapted from the 2015 spy novel of the same name by Bilal Siddiqi.
How many episodes are in Bard of Blood?
The show consists of eight episodes which will be dropping all at once, so fans can binge the drama in one sitting should they choose to.
The espionage thriller follows former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent Kabir Anand (played by Emraan Hashmi), who is brought out of retirement and put on a new mission.
Anand is serving as a professor at a university in Panchgani when he’s pulled back into the world of intelligence.
Along with analyst Isha Khanna (Sobhita Dhulipala) and sleeper agent Veer Singh (Vineet Kumar Singh), Ananad will be tasked with rescuing four operatives who are being held captive in Balochistan, Pakistan.
One of the agents is a former flame of Anand’s and is likely to open old wounds.
Ananad and the rest of the team will be locked in a race against the clock to save the agents using a combination of combat skills and intelligence to outsmart his opponents.
He will also be out for vengeance for the past after he was expelled from the intelligence organisation previously.
Other cast members include Jaideep Ahlawat, Rajit Kapur, Kirti Kulhari, Abhishekh Khan, Amyra Dastur, Ajay Mahendru and Sahiba Bali.
The title of the series refers to the dichotomy between Anand’s life as an academic specialising in the Bard, William Shakespeare, and his violent career as a spy.
Bard of Blood has been made by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and his film producer wife Gauri’s company Red Chillies Entertainment.
Netflix announced Bard of Blood back in 2017 and is slated to be a multi-lingual production with characters speaking to each other in Hindi, Urdu, English and other languages.
A release from the streaming platform at the time stated: “The series will involve intricate, highly stylised action sequences never before seen on screen in India.”
However, it’s unclear whether Khan will have a role in the series.
Nevertheless, the show has come under fire for apparently being political in the depiction of some of its characters as it explores Indian and Pakistani relations.
Creator and co-writer Siddiqui defended the story, telling Gadgets 360: “I think it is a fictional narrative.
“Every storyteller will have his point of view. Probably on that side of the border [in Pakistan], they have their point of view.
“We have not tried to make any political statement through the show. Pretty clear about that. It’s supposed to be fiction, enjoyed as an action-thriller adventure.
“If you step into this terrain of a story, there are going to be some trappings that come along with it. There was no conscious decision to do any of that when we were writing the story.”
He added: “We just wanted to write the best possible and dramatic version of the story.”
Bard of Blood will be released on Netflix today
