Ujaan Ganguly, the son of National Award-winning filmmaker Kaushik Ganguly, is set to make his directorial debut with a new Netflix animated period drama. The streamer dropped the first-look motion of the series, titled Kurukshetra, on Wednesday.
The series is based on Mahabharata, an epic composed by Ved Vyasa that tells the story of the great war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, two warring families for the throne of the kingdom of Hastinapura.
The epic details their conflict, guided by Lord Krishna, which ultimately leads to the Kurukshetra war and the philosophical discourse of the Bhagavad Gita.
Ujaan has also written the screenplay for the upcoming series.
“Shankhnaad ke sath arambh hoga dharm aur adharm ka mahayudh. Watch Kurukshetra, out 10 October, only on Netflix,” Netflix wrote on Instagram.
Sharing the motion poster on Facebook, Kaushik Ganguly expressed his excitement over his son’s directorial debut. “Woke up this morning to see Gulzar’s name as lyricist written under the poster of the first announcement of the Netflix series Kurukshetra. Besides his name, spotting Ujaan as the writer and director of the show made us, parents, proud,” he wrote.
“Churni and I have worked in screenplay writing, directing and acting; today, Ujaan also got the great opportunity to test his skills in screenplay and directing beyond the acting. This day is the result of tireless hard work for 3 long years. Whether it is an animation or live-action project, there is always a joint fight of many people behind it,” the filmmaker added.
Ujaan made his acting debut in 2018 with the film Rosogolla. He also headlined Kaushik Ganguly’s 2022 social drama Lokkhi Chele.
In 2024, he started a new initiative along with his parents Kaushik and Churni Ganguly. Titled ‘The Screenplayers’, the project works as a writer’s bank that collects scripts from across Bengal, fine-tunes them, and makes them available to directors and producers for use. Anyone can participate in this project.
Kurukshetra is set to premiere on October 10. Gulzar has penned the songs in the series.