What’s it like being an established actor in 2024? What’s it like navigating and bouncing between shows and films, platforms and mediums, theatrical and streaming?

To shed light on just that, for the season finale of The Streaming Show podcast, I spoke to Jim Sarbh. It feels like the talented actor has been everywhere over the last few years. On streaming, we’ve seen him on popular shows like Four More Shots Please, the beloved Made In Heaven, and one of my favourites Rocket Boys for which he even bagged an international Emmy nomination.

He also recently started his own YouTube series Crew Cut, which I strongly recommend, in which popular actors interview the storytellers and artists behind the scene about the craft of filmmaking.

Jim spoke to me about the ongoing …often soul crushing conflict between an actor and artist wanting to do good work as against the constant calculations of playing the positioning and perception game. Along with the current slump and uncertainty within the film industry, flitting between Shakespeare and playing the villain in his first Telugu film, his thoughts on the talent management ecosystem and a whole lot more.

Is 2024 an exciting time to be a film editor? Going by the sheer volume of theatrical streaming releases, you'd think so.

To break it down, I spoke to two of the busiest editors in town. In 2023 alone, prolific editor Nitin Baid had Sam Bahadur, Rocky Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, The Archies and Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan. Not to mention shows like Dahaad and Made In Heaven Season 2.

Antara Lahiri is known for projects like Tooth Pari, Delhi Crime Season 2, Shakuntala Devi, Four More Shots Please and one of my favourites. Modern Love Mumbai.

Aside from being an accomplished editor, Antara also runs an excellent YouTube channel called The Finest Cut With Antara Lahiri where she hosts insightful conversations with some of the finest editors in the business. It's highly recommended viewing

Together, the two spoke to me whether editors get their due, the most insane feedback they've got from platforms, the issues with how editors are paid and how much of their time goes into salvaging shoddy storytelling

You cant really tell the Indian streaming story without talking to Sid Roy Kapur. One of the most respected producers in the business, he’s backed more than 80 films according to his IMDB, including gems like DANGAL, BARFI, UDAAN, PAAN SINGH TOMAR, and HAIDER.

Previously the Managing Director of The Walt Disney Company India and CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, Sid also served as president of the Producers’ Guild of India for multiple terms. He now runs Roy Kapur Films which has made numerous shows and movies for streaming including Aranyak for Netflix and the excellent Rocket Boys for SonyLIV.

To bring in the new season of The Streaming Show, Sid spoke to me about the state of the streaming and theatrical landscapes, the continued struggles of smaller films and whether the golden age of streaming is well and truly over.

If you’re a writer or filmmaker who’s always thought in terms of feature films and wants to embark on your first series - where do you start? How do you start thinking in terms of episodes, cold opens, cliff-hangers and seasons?

To break down the art of approaching the beast of a series I spoke to who else but the maximum guys of streaming - Raj and DK. The dynamic duo have churned out one blockbuster show after another. Two seasons of one of our finest shows, The Family Man, Farzi (which is reportedly one of Prime Video’s most watched shows ever). Not to mention Guns and Gulaabs for Netflix.

And that’s not all. Due for release this year is Amazon’s Citadel Honey Bunny starring and also soon to be released is Another series they produced called Gulkanda Tales. I keep joking that Amazon should essentially build a shrine to them at this point. Raj and DK spoke to me about the art of structuring a series, the challenges of tackling a second season, what goes into nailing a great climax and the biggest turn offs they see in other Indian Shows.

It’s a pretty bleak time for the Indian streaming landscape, to put it lightly. I’ve spoken to writers who’ve said they’ve never seen the industry in such bad shape. You hear constant horror stories these days. Everything from platforms no longer commissioning shows, to shows in development or even about to start production which are either shelved or facing drastically reduced budgets. And these are big, well-known filmmakers and writers. So how bad is it and is there any hope in sight?

To break it down, I spoke to one of the most significant storytelling voices we have. Sudip Sharma is the creator of Paatal Lok and Kohrra. He’s one of the few true blue showrunners we have - a writer who’s stepped up and become captain of the ship of his shows. Sudip spoke to me about the crippling uncertainty of the current streaming landscape for writers, the caliber of stories on streaming, his experiences of working with Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video, his advice for young writers trying to weather the current storm, and what advice what the future of long-form storytelling looks like in India.

What exactly does an effective writers' room look like, and have we adopted the concept well within the Indian streaming ecosystem? Or is it still a free-for-all with everyone just doing their own thing? To break it down I spoke to two of the most exciting screenwriters in town, both of whom bring new meaning to the term multihyphenate talent.

Varun Grover was head writer in one of the first writers rooms for a major streamer with Sacred Games. Aside from creating and starring in Prime Video’s Pushpavalli, one of the finest shows we’ve made, Sumukhi Suresh recently founded MotorMouth - a company solely dedicated to writing and developing shows and movies. At MotorMouth, Sumukhi is currently juggling 8 separate writers rooms at once.

In a hilarious, insightful chat, the two sparking screenwriters spoke to me about the do’s and don'ts of running a writers' room, bringing together the right group of personalities, why writers fighting can actually be a good thing, what the job of a head writer is, how young writers can deal with asshole bosses and toxic power structures, the insanity of writers being banned on sets and the surprising significance of Bengali food.