MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video, in association with Applause Entertainment, the digital content arm of the Aditya Birla Group, have a provocative project in the works. Titled Rasbhari, the project is headlined by feisty actress, Swara Bhasker, who plays the eponymous Rasbhari.

Rasbhari is a web series set in small-town India, Meerut to be specific, where a young teenager Nand becomes fascinated with his beautiful English teacher, Shaanu Madam. The boy soon discovers that his new English teacher has a sexy alter-ego named ‘Rasbhari’. Swara plays the role of the English teacher, while Nand is played by young actor Ayushmaan Saxena, of Bombay Talkies fame. Rashmi Agdekar, Pradyuman Singh, Neelu Kohli, and Chitranjan Tripathi make up the rest of the cast.

Under the garb of the coming-of-age story of young Nand, Rasbhari is a powerful indictment of regressive notions such as patriarchy, suppression of female sexuality, and the ilk. It is a social satire that plays out through the medium of the various characters – the infatuated Nand, the teacher Shaanu Madam, who is compelled to keep her sexuality veiled in order to adhere to societal norms, the slut-shaming people who take the moral high ground when confronted with sexually expressive females, and lots more. The quirky tale is thought-provoking and uplifting.

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Rasbhari has been produced by Tanveer Bookwala, written by Shantanu Shrivastava, who was one of the writers of Bollywood hit Badhai Ho, and directed by Nikhil Bhatt.

As an aside, Rasbhari was nominated in the short form category at the annual Series Mania International festival, held in France.

Rasbhari is slated to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on 19th June.

SOURCE – BINGED NEWS

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