Exclusive: 'Tumbbad' director's Prime Video series 'Gulkanda Tales' in trouble; streamer debates on cancelling show

Tumbbad filmmaker Rahi Anil Barve's ambitious Prime Video series Gulkanda Tales has hit a major roadblock in its post-production even as makers are desperately trying to salvage the show with re-edits to avoid getting it cancelled by the streamer. According to multiple sources The Hollywood Reporter India spoke to, there has been an internal "debate" on cancelling the series, which had Kunal Kemmu, Pankaj Tripathi, and Patralekha among others in its cast. Gulkanada Tales is produced by filmmaker duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, who also serve as the creators.

The show, which has been in post-production for nearly a year, has undergone multiple edits as the stakeholders were not fully on board with the finished material. Despite strong rumours in industry circles that the show — after months of back and forth — has finally been cancelled, sources in the know revealed there have been "a lot of debates on if they (Prime Video) want to pull the plug for sure," mainly because, "there are a lot of re-shoots involved."

"The story is a bit scattered, similar to what Tumbbad was. The feedback has been that it jumps too much and doesn't make sense as it goes from one episode to another. The makers tried to edit it multiple times, but the shape wasn't there. To fix it, they would have to re-shoot a lot of these portions, which means getting all the dates of the actors together and then building the sets again, which is not possible. These things can't be fixed on the edit and hence for the longest period, the show has been in limbo," a source shared.

The makers are now trying to give it "another shape" to figure out if they can keep re-shoots to the bare minimum, which includes figuring out if they can drop an entire subplot. "It's a logistical problem at this stage as the re-shoots require much more money, and they won't be getting that additional budget now from Prime Video. It's a tough process to get everything back together. So it remains to be seen if they do it in a cost-effective manner," the source shared.

The Hollywood Reporter India has also learnt that the show, announced in 2022, is a period sex comedy, something that later became a concern for the streamer fearing backlash. Another insider, however, denied the reasoning and added that the series is set in a "fictional kingdom" and is a satirical, fun show about feminism and misogyny. "It derives nothing from any real incident. So there's no question of sensitivity. It's not that kind of a show at all."

A mail was sent to Prime Video for comment, but there was no response.