‘The Trial’: Kajol to star in Indian adaptation of ‘The Good Wife’

Bollywood actor Kajol is all set to star in a Disney+ Hotstar series ‘The Trial – Pyaar, Kaanoon, Dhokha’, an Indian adaptation of the CBS series ‘The Good Wife’, reported Variety on Monday.

The courtroom drama will feature Kajol as Noyonika Sengupta, a housewife who is forced to return to work as a lawyer after a public scandal engulfs her husband and sends him off to jail. The cast also includes Sheeba Chaddha, Jisshu Sengupta, Alyy Khan, Kubbra Sait and Gaurav Pandey in key roles, added the report.

The series will begin streaming on July 14.

The original cast for the CBS series had featured Julianne Margulies as the wife of Chris Noth who played the disgraced husband. A spin-off and standalone sequel starring Christine Baranski called ‘The Good Fight’ had soon followed after the series ended.

The series will be produced by Banijay Asia and Ajay Devgn FFilms, and has been directed by Suparn S. Varma.

“The complexities are what defines a character to me and the layers surrounding Noyonika are what spoke to me when this role first came over,” Kajol was quoted as saying by Variety.

“Noyonika felt personal, I instantly felt protective about her and that reaffirmed my faith in choosing ‘The Trial’ on Disney+ Hotstar to be my first step into the long format. Suparn Varma has built a world where vulnerability of characters meet the cruel situations posed by life. The audience will feel for and feel one with Noyonika as she makes difficult choices, because I did.”

Walt Disney Co’s Indian platform is known as Hotstar. Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s streaming platform JioCinema has recently been shoring up its content and pricing plans in an effort to fight global rivals such as Netflix and Disney in the country.

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Gaurav Banerjee, head of content at Disney+ Hotstar, added: “Bringing ‘The Trial’ together is the result of high collaboration and support of everyone involved, be it the director, Suparn to our charismatic show lead Kajol to our producers, Deepak Dhar from Banijay,” she was quoted as saying.

Roxanne Pompa, VP, international formats at Paramount Global Content Distribution, added, “It is incredible to see how the storyline and these characters in the adaptation have been transformed to fit into the local landscape and culture so effortlessly,” added the report.

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Kajol’s illustrious Bollywood career includes blockbusters like ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,’ and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…,’ across superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

She has been married to fellow Bollywood star Ajay Devgn for more than 20 years. She made her streaming debut with Netflix film ‘Tribhanga’ which aired in 2021. ‘The Trial’ will be her debut streaming series.

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