Siddharth Roy Kapur goes epic with Anarchy, aims for the global stage

"The scope and scale of the project are tremendous. The per-episode budget of shows like The Crown or Game of Thrones range from $8 to 15 million. I think our project is going to be pretty much the same. We'll be shooting in the UK and Asia and will be availing of whatever production facilities are available in whichever countries we go to. We intend to tell the story the way it should be," Kapur told Moneycontrol.

He added that the story can go on for four to five seasons given the quantity of material in there, and the incredible roster of characters — from the British to the Mughals to the Marathas to the Dutch to the French to the Portuguese to the moneylenders, and more. "There are so many wonderful characters; what a sweeping arc of history," the producer said.

An adaptation of Dalrymple's best-selling The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, the book's rights were among the most fiercely contested in India. The book narrates the story of the origins of the East India Company and  its operations in the subcontinent, the battle of Plassey, and much more.

"When I read about this book William was working on, much before it was published, it immediately piqued my interest. I've been a big history buff growing up. And this period has always been so cinematic in so many ways that it just sort of lends itself to a story that needs to be told on the screen. I got in touch with William and his publishers and we got into a conversation, and I think we both realised that we were seeing it in exactly the same way. The vision and scope, the incredible characters, and the massive scale at which the story needed to be told," he explained.

RKF has tied up with  US-based film studio WIIP, creators of hit series like Mare of Easttown, for the project.

Filmmaker Stephen Frears.

Global game

Kapur said The Anarchy might be the first global co-production of an Indian  series.

"On the film front, you have all the major studios now in India, from Fox to Disney to Sony to Viacom. But they've made local language content so far, not something global. There are some  projects that have reached out to a crossover audience, but those are few and far between. This, I think, would be a rare example of an Indian and a US production company tying up to tell a global story on a global scale," he added.

``India hasn't really made a global series that has managed to break out into the rest of the world, the way Korea, Mexico and Spain have done. We felt it would be great to tie up with a US production partner who understands what it takes to actually put together a project like this, and can help us navigate the terrain to get the right creative talent  on board from across the world," Kapur added.

"Paul Lee (Founder, WIIP) and I worked together at Disney where he was running ABC  and I was running the India operations. We met at various management conclaves and hit it off. He later founded WIPP and I founded RKF. That's when we got talking about what we could do together. Then this came up as one of those projects that he was as excited about as we were," Kapur said.

The next phase of the project, after signing British director and producer Stephen Frears who has to his credit Oscar-winning movies like Dangerous Liaisons, is to partner with a streaming platform.

"We're now in a pretty good place with regard to all the material we require to be able to move forward and take it to a platform. WIIP, Stephen, and RKF will be doing that in the next phase," Kapur added.