After since the Phantom boys – Vikas Bahl, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena – split and dissolved their production house Phantom Films, the fate of Netflix series, ‘Sacred Games 2’ seems to be caught up in fire.
Phantom recently produced the series Sacred Games for Netflix, where Reliance has stakes to the tune of 50 per cent. Motwane was recently announced as showrunner for the show’s second season, with Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan as co-directors.
But now that Phantom Films is no more, it lead to questions about current and future projects at the company. The first question arises that will Netflix, which apparently has the rights of Sacred Games, collaborate solo with Neeraj Ghaywan and Anurag?
Phantom was formed in 2011 as a collective of like-minded filmmakers. Phantom’s debut production was 2013’s “Lootera,” directed by Motwane. Bahl’s “Queen” was a breakout feminist hit in 2013 and Kashyap’s “Ugly” was a Cannes selection the same year. The company’s “Masaan” (2015) and “Raman Raghav 2.0” (2016) were Cannes selections and “The Brawler” (2017) played Toronto and Busan. In 2015, the company entered a 50-50 joint venture with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment to develop and produce five to six films every year, distribute them in India and abroad, and to also syndicate rights from their combined library.
However, the partners have now decided to go their separate ways
As to how the dissolution of Phantom will affect the show’s production, when contacted by The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix issued the following statement, “At this time we are evaluating options on the path forward.”
When contacted by THR about the future status of Phantom projects, Kashyap said that “they will go with their individual producers as far as I foresee. An official statement on them will follow soon.”
Read: Here’s why Phantom Films shutdown?
While Anurag and Vikramaditya have come out in support of assaulted girl, Neeraj Ghaywan has hit out at Phantom Films left, right and centre after the details of Vikas Bahl assault on a female employee emerged.
Bahl is currently in production on his next film Super30, a biopic on mathematician Anand Kumar which stars top actor Hrithik Roshan. The project was announced as a co-production between Phantom and Bollywood producer Sajid Nadiadwala and is slated for release next year.
