Jubilee is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language Period Drama Miniseries streaming on Prime Video. Created by Vikramaditya Motwane and Soumik Sen, the series is a fictionalized account of the development of Bollywood, the mainstream Hindi film industry, after Indian independence. It was released in two parts: Episodes 1–5 were released on April 7, 2023, and Episodes 6–10 were released on April 14, 2023.
Bombay, July 1947. Binod Das (Aparshakti Khurana) is the right-hand man of Srikant Roy (Prosenjit Chatterjee), owner of Roy Talkies, one of Bombay's biggest film studios, who has ambitions of becoming a star himself. Srikant is looking for a new star for Roy Talkies to launch, to be named "Madan Kumar". His prime candidate is Jamshed Khan (Nandish Singh Sandhu), a Lucknow-based theatre actor who is also being courted by his friend Jay Khanna (Sidhant Gupta), son of the owner of Karachi's prestigious Khanna Theatre Company; Jamshed is also having an affair with Roy's wife, Bollywood star and Roy Talkies co-owner Sumitra Kumari (Aditi Rao Hydari). However, riots in Lucknow after the announcement of The Partition of India lead to a spiral of events leading to Jamshed's death, Binod and Jay forming an unlikely bond, and Binod himself becoming Roy Talkies's "Madan Kumar". In the aftermath of Partition, Jay and his family arrive as refugees in Bombay with Jay looking to forge a new path in a new land; another newcomer to Bombay is Niloufer Qureshi (Wamiqa Gabbi), a former ''tawaif''
and prostitute from Lucknow who dreams of becoming a star.
Other significant characters include Binod's wife Ratna (Shweta Basu Prasad) and brother Naren (Chirag Katrecha); wealthy industrialist and film financier Shamsher Walia (Ram Kapoor); Maqsood (Narottam Bain), Jamshed's makeup artist and confidante; Nanik Jotwani, a government bureaucrat; Raghu Jhalani (Alok ), another refugee who has become a small-time thug; and Kiran Singh Sethi (Sukhmanee Lamba), a doctor in the refugee camp who seems to have feelings for Jay.
Jubilee provides examples of the following tropes:
- Betty and Veronica: Kiran and Niloufer for Jay, the former being a doctor living with him in the refugee camp, and the latter being a former prostitute who is now a film star. While Jay secretly marries Niloufer in Pune, he is forced to publicly marry Kiran after her father blackmails him with evidence of his perjury in Binod's murder case.
- Bookends: Jay and Binod first meet when Binod saves Jay from the policeman. Their final meeting has Jay save Binod from the charges of murdering Jamshed. Binod even lampshades this, with Jay handing Binod five rupees, the same amount Binod had paid the cop.
- Combat in a Car: In "Aag", Binod conspires to pick Jamshed up at the theatre to drive him to Charbagh Station after his final show in Lucknow while pretending to be "Sundar Ghosh". However, Jamshed learns of his real identity when he sees a receipt made out to "Binod Das, Roy Talkies"; infuriated at learning that the man he believed to be a mere fan turned out to be conspiring with his lover's husband to get him and her to Bombay, he impulsively attacks Binod, with the two men's fighting causing the car to veer off the road and crash into some flaming debris during the ongoing riot.
- Dead Sparks: If there was ever any love in Srikant and Sumitra's marriage, it is long gone. Srikant unashamedly philanders with mistresses and married women, while Sumitra took only three weeks to fall for Jamshed enough that she was wholly willing to leave her glamorous Bollywood life behind and elope with him to Karachi. Srikant doesn't even mind the idea of bringing Jamshed, who he knows Sumitra is sleeping with, to Bombay and making him a star, telling Binod that while women and wives come and go, stars like Jamshed are hard to find.
- Downer Ending: For the most part. Binod is found not guilty of Jamshed's murder after Jay lies to the court saying that Binod, unable to save Jamshed, only knocked him out to prevent him from experiencing a gruesome death at the rioters' hands. Bankrupt and broken, Sumitra is soon found dead of an overdose, with Vladimir's conversation implying that she may have been killed by the Soviets. Binod retires from acting and leaves Bombay with Ratna; Naren has become a beggar on the street after the bag of jewelry she gave him was stolen. Jay is forced to marry Kiran after being blackmailed by Pratap Singh with tapes (implied to be from the Soviets) proving that he knew that Binod knowingly killed Jamshed, having to abandon Niloufer in Pune. With both of its owners dead, Roy Talkies shuts down.
- Fake Film Intro: The series opens with a newsreel discussing Roy Talkies and introducing its owners, film producer Srikant Roy and his wife, Bollywood film star Sumitra Kumari. The newsreel also states that Srikant is looking for a new star for Roy Talkies's films, to be given the Stage Name "Madan Kumar".
- Horrible Hollywood: Well, Horrible Bollywood. Most people in the film industry are terrible people, and those who aren't either become terrible people or have their lives ruined. Film studio owners interfere with scripts written by promising young writers; adultery is rife and the rare real relationship ends in tragedy; and sleeping one's way to the top is basically required for women. And that's not even getting into the industry's intertwining with politics, from local satraps all the way to international conspiracies.
- Interrupted Intimacy: While Binod is waiting for his train at Ratlam junction en route to Lucknow, he sees Jay dancing with a young Englishwoman in the waiting room for first class, which culminates in the two of them very audibly having sex in her first-class train compartment. They are interrupted by an Englishman (presumably her guardian), who throws Jay out with his things and hands him over to a couple of (Indian) policemen, presumably to be beaten up. A bemused Binod bribes the policemen to free Jay, feeling bored in his nearby first-class compartment and figuring Jay would be interesting company during the journey.
- It Will Never Catch On: When Jay asks Binod why a picture of Jamshed Khan is labelled "Madan Kumar", Binod explains that the studio plans to give him the stage name because "Khans don't become stars", which is hilarious in the context of modern Bollywood, whose biggest stars include Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, and Saif Ali Khan.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with Jay's father Narain Khanna and Binod's brother Naren Das, both pronounced identically. That said, the former is typically referred to as "father/dad" or "Mr. Khanna".
- Troubled Production: In-universe. None of the movies released during the course of the series have smooth productions:
- Sunghursh had been announced as a project starring Roy Talkies's new star "Madan Kumar" and financed by Walia before the start of the series; after auditions, Jamshed Khan is selected as the actor who will bear the screen name. However, Jamshed drags out the negotiations as he is hesitant to commit to the studio, leading to Walia expressing concerns about his investment; this is compounded when Jamshed begins an affair with Sumitra Kumari, culminating in the two of them nearly eloping to Karachi before Srikant sends Binod to get them back. In the aftermath of the events in Lucknow, when Srikant decides to use Binod as "Madan Kumar", Walia withdraws his investment in the film, leaving it in limbo (the studio itself having already been mortgaged), and Sumitra sabotages Srikant's efforts to have it funded by Mehta; Binod has to resort to blackmailing Mehta about the money he sends his mistress to get him to invest in the film. That isn't even getting into troubles during filming, where Binod's first takes are abysmal due to him being haunted (metaphorically) by Jamshed's spirit, and Sumitra clearly resents working with him. Thankfully, the film, when released, is a blockbuster, and cements Madan Kumar as a star.
- Jay's Taxi Driver starts out okay; apart from the slight issue with having to rewrite the script to change the setting from Karachi to Bombay, things are looking good when he gets Binod's support, both for Roy Talkies to support the film and for Madan Kumar to star in it. However, this plan is sent awry when Srikant not only convinces Binod to not work on the film, but also has his canteen manager fire Jay from his job at the canteen by framing him for theft, still bitter about Jamshed having chosen the Khanna Theatre Company over Roy Talkies. Subsequently, Jay, on Niloufer's advice, convinces Walia to fund the film, and uses his contacts at the refugee camp such as Pratap Singh and Raghu to acquire used camera equipment and land for his studio; he also convinces Binod to give him another shot. However, when Binod comes to the studio and learns that Walia, the man who withdrew his funding from Sunghursh because Binod was selected as Madan Kumar, is funding the film, he withdraws from the project; Jay, therefore, has to also act in the movie.
- Wham Shot:
- At the end of Episode 1, after Binod performs the screen test in front of Srikant, culminating in him weeping on the floor of the studio incinerator room as Srikant accepts him as Madan Kumar, Srikant walks towards the incinerator room and pulls out pictures from an envelope showing Jamshed in the overturned car, including one of Binod attacking Jamshed.
- Workplace Betting Pool: The prologue of Episode 2 shows a flashback of the Roy Talkies employees looking at the actors auditioning for "Madan Kumar" and betting on which one will get the job: each of them bet one rupee, with the winner getting 10 to 1 odds. Binod puts his rupee on Jamshed after seeing that he is the only actor who doesn't rush to meet Srikant when the latter arrives at the studio. Binod ultimately loses the bet, though he doesn't mind given who gets the job instead: himself.