Jubilee is an Indian historical drama streaming television series created and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. Set against the backdrop of the Hindi film industry in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the series follows the rise of post-independence Bombay cinema, the partition of India, and the personal ambitions of those who shaped the era's studio system. It premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2023 and is produced by Andolan Films and Phantom Studios.
| Title | Jubilee |
|---|---|
| Genre | Period drama |
| Created and directed by | Vikramaditya Motwane |
| Writers | Soumik Sen, Atul Sabharwal |
| Original language | Hindi |
| Number of episodes | 10 (Season 1) |
| Production companies | Andolan Films, Phantom Studios |
| Streaming platform | Amazon Prime Video |
| Premiere | 2023 |
| Setting | Bombay, late 1940s–early 1950s |
The series is set in the years surrounding Indian independence and Partition, a transformative period for Hindi cinema. It traces the workings of a fictional Bombay film studio, Roy Talkies, and its founder Srikant Roy, as the studio searches for a star who can be moulded into a screen icon under the name "Madan Kumar." Parallel storylines follow an aspiring performer from a refugee camp, a returning soldier-turned-financier, and the studio owner's wife, an established leading lady. The narrative weaves together themes of stardom, betrayal, communal violence, the entry of black-market money into film financing, and the technological shift from silent-era studio practice to the playback singing era.
Vikramaditya Motwane, known for films such as Udaan and Lootera and the streaming series Sacred Games, conceived Jubilee as a tribute to and reimagining of the studio era of Hindi cinema. The screenplay was developed by Motwane with Soumik Sen and Atul Sabharwal. The production placed emphasis on period reconstruction, including costume, set design and sound, with Pratik Shah as cinematographer. The music score was composed by Amit Trivedi, with songs evoking the orchestral and ghazal-inflected styles of the late 1940s and 1950s.
The first season was released on Amazon Prime Video in two parts in 2023, with the initial set of episodes launched on 7 April 2023 and the remaining episodes following on 14 April 2023.
The series received broadly positive reviews from Indian and international critics, who praised its production design, cinematography, performances—particularly those of Prosenjit Chatterjee and Aparshakti Khurana—and its detailed evocation of the Bombay film industry of the period. The show was widely noted for drawing inspiration from real figures and studios of the era, while presenting an entirely fictional storyline.
As a long-form streaming drama focused on the formative years of Hindi cinema, Jubilee contributes to a small body of Indian screen work dealing with the studio system, partition-era migration into Bombay, and the cultural politics of post-independence popular entertainment. The series situates the emergence of the post-1947 film star within larger historical currents, including refugee resettlement, the influence of underworld financing in the film business, and the cross-border movement of artistes between Bombay and Lahore.