NENT’s Black Widows head to India

Black Widows was developed for Finnish broadcaster Nelonen

Indian streaming platform ZEE5 is set to develop a two-season local adaptation of Finnish drama series Black Widows following a deal with NENT Studios UK (fka DRG).

Black Widows tells the darkly comic story of three best friends who try to kill their husbands. One of the men survives and seeks his revenge, putting the women’s friendship and mutual trust to the test.

The series was created by Roope Lehtinen and Mikko Polla for Finnish broadcaster Nelonen. The Indian version will be the eighth international remake following versions in Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, the Middle East, Mexico, Scandinavia and the Czech Republic.

Black Widows is due to premiere on ZEE5 later this year. It will be produced by local prodco Big Synergy Media with Namit Sharma on board as producer.

Tarun Katial, CEO of ZEE5, said: “Black Widows is an engaging story featuring strong female protagonists, plenty of suspense and a large dose of dark humour. We could immediately see its appeal for Indian audiences and found credible partners in NENT Studios UK. I am certain that this could prove to be a hugely popular, bingeworthy series when it launches later this year.”

This Black Widows deal is the latest format deal for NENT Studios UK’s drama catalogue. In addition to the other Black Widows remakes, ITV drama Doc Martin has been adapted in Germany, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, while Channel 4’s Shameless has been remade in the US and Turkey.

In related news, Nordic Entertainment (NENT) Group has commissioned Swedish horror series Dystopia as the latest original drama for its Viaplay streaming service.

Premiering in 2021 and produced by Swedish prodco Jarowskij, the plot centres on a group of thrill seekers who stage live roleplay in an abandoned Cold War-era factory, only for the game to turn deadly.

The eight-part production is based on an idea by director Richard Jarnhed and producer Lotta Westberg, both of whom worked on NENT Group original series Black Lake.