Netflix is yet again set to launch its crime drama ‘Dabba Cartel’ with power-packed performances by Shabana Azmi, who’s the boss lady entangled in a drug Mafia, alongside Jyothika, Lilette Dubey and Gajraj Rao in pivotal roles.
Produced by Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment, Dabba Cartel is created by Shibani Akhtar, Vishnu Menon, Gaurav Kapur, and Akanksha Seda and written by Vishnu Menon and Bhavna Kher. Directed by Hitesh Bhatia the series is scheduled to be released on 27th February on Netflix.
The grand trailer launch event held in Mumbai at Mehboob Studios saw the entire ensemble cast and crew, including Shabana Azmi, Farhan Akhtar, Shibani Akhtar, Gajraj Rao, Jyotika, Nimisha Sajayan, Shalini Pandey, Anjali Anand, Sai Tamhankar, Jisshu Sengupta, Lillete Dubey, and Bhupendra Singh Jadawat.
The trailer took the audiences into the lives of five middle-class women who run a dabba business in the bustling suburbs of Thane, where ambition meets danger. The story takes an unexpected turn as they get entangled in the vicious circle of a drug cartel and Narcotics, which is dubbed as the ‘Narcotics Thana’.
Director Hitesh Bhatia shares, “Directing Dabba Cartel has been an incredible experience. It’s a gripping crime drama with emotional depth and dynamic characters who navigate a high-stakes world with courage and wit. The cast has delivered phenomenal performances, and I’m excited for viewers to dive into this rollercoaster of crime and survival on Netflix.”
Creator Shibani Akhtar shares, “With Dabba Cartel, we wanted to explore the ordinary household women and how their resilience, ambition, and survival instincts can push them into unimaginable circumstances. This is a story of friendship, betrayal, and power, set against the backdrop of a world they never imagined being a part of. We can’t wait for audiences to experience the thrill and heart of this series that we at Excel Entertainment have created with Netflix.”
Shibani talks about getting Shabana Azmi and the ensemble cast onboard, saying, “She was already part of the cast before the story was developed, and I knew her to be Sheela. We didn’t even narrate the story to her and gave her a two-liner, and she said yes. Again getting onboard such an ensemble cast was a huge team effort by Netflix and Excel to find such a perfect blend of the cast that we have today. I can’t imagine these characters being played by anybody else. It’s one thing to write the character in paper, and the other is the way they have brought them to life is commendable.”
Shabana Azmi who plays a lady Mafia of the Dabba circuit talks about what made her take up the character in Dabba Cartel, having played many-layered characters in her huge body of work, Azmi admits mockingly that she had no option but to choose the role as it was directed by her daughter in law and produced by her son says,” Dekhiye Bai ghar ka mamla hai, bahu ka huqum tha aur beta produce kar raha hai,.meri aukat ki main na boloon?”
Talking about her role, the veteran actress throwing light on her character said,” The character is very fascinating because you have no idea what she is doing, where is she going. At this point, it was something which came along my way, and I look forward to it.”
Azmi also dropped a bomb that, in the beginning, she was sceptical about two cast members and wanted them to be removed; she said, ” I have a confession to make. There are two actresses in this show that I wanted to remove. One is Jyotika. She doesn’t know this but I wanted her out and wanted to cast someone else. I even told them (Farhan and Shibani) that kisi aur ko cast karte hain (let’s cast someone else).”
While Jyothika laughed at this, Azmi added, “But thankfully, they didn’t budge. Shibani said, ‘Do whatever you want to, but we are not changing the cast’. And I am grateful that they didn’t listen to me, because it would have robbed me of the chance to work with her.”
Farhan Akhtar, talking about the concept of Dabba Cartel and their association with Netflix, said,” It is an interesting concept of bringing two genres Family Drama and Thriller and some kind of a scandal happening in a pharmaceutical world and combining them has created a very unique experience in terms of imagining of what this world and script could be like.”
He adds,” We were very much clear about what kind of scripts Netflix would be interested in, and so when Dubba Cartel was ready, we reached out to Monika and her team. It is a women-centric film and has a very strong female voice, and they were completely onboard wanting to do it after hearing it. I want to thank Monika and her team for partnering with Excel.”
Ritesh Sidhwani, replying to what makes it appealing for the global audience, replied, ” I think the first thing is that if the audience would connect with the characters and the life and their journey,and the people of its origin and its country, then it connects everywhere else. These characters are so fascinating and with so many layers that it makes you identify with them.”
Lilette Dubey, talking about what’s expected from her character, throws light on her wig that she battled with throughout the shoot, saying, “I don’t know what to expect but I hated by ghastly wig which I had to put in this show which is a very big mistake. I decided to wear it to look different like this Madam who’s moved up in society. Although it’s a small role, the character has nice shades to her, and I got to do a lot of scenes with Shabana. So the big pull was the producers Farhan and Shibani and Shabana, what made me take up the role.”
Jyothika replies to evolving as a heroine who’s shifted from being a love interest to playing women-centric characters, saying,” That shift happened much earlier in my life, and yes, it has been a conscious effort, and it’s very much required. There are a lot of stories to be told from the female perspective, which are fewer. I feel Dabba Cartel is a very fresh take on how women balance the act of being both domesticated while they face the outer world. ”
She added, ” My character was an extremely complex yet simple one who lives under a facade of the outside world, but she has a very deep inside world, which is in every woman’s life, and that connection with the real women out there has made me choose the character. It’s a power-packed show of characters you have seen in your life and society played by the most stellar cast. The superpower of the show is its stellar cast.”
Monika Shergill, VP Content, Netflix, said, “Dabba Cartel is one of the most exciting shows of the year with the partnership I’m personally excited about with Excel Entertainment. Dabba Cartel is a unique crime Drama Series which is about the everyday hustle of women running a Dabba business and their husbands in pharmaceutical companies. They decide to make some choices, which have consequences, and that is where the crime investigation comes in.”
Do tune in to Netflix for Dabba Cartel on 28th February 2024.
