Indian Comedy 'Brahman Naman' to Premiere Globally on Netflix

After being snapped up at Sundance, the Q-directed nerd comedy will stream exclusively on Netflix worldwide later this year.

Indian coming-of-age comedy Brahman Naman will premiere exclusively, and globally, on Netflix later this year.

Netflix snapped up the worldwide SVOD rights to the film at the Sundance Film Festival, and the global push for Brahman Naman feeds into both the company's expansion plans in India as well as targeting the large Indian diaspora and fans of Indian cinema around the world.

Directed by Q (short for Quashik Mukherjee), the 1980s-set film revolves around a champion college quiz team who try to win the all-India finals as well as lose their virginity. The pic was written by Naman Ramachandran and co-produced by Celine Loop and Steve Barron, whose credits as a director include 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and iconic music videos such as Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing."

Q is considered one of India's most provocative indie filmmakers; his filmography includes Gandu, Tasher Desh and Ludo.

“Brahman Naman is Indian cinema at its boldest: fast, furious and raucously funny,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said Sunday in a statement. “It’s a movie that will delight adolescents of all ages, and we’re excited to bring this hilarious tale to our members around the world.”

The film garnered positive reviews at Sundance, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it “an imaginative reworking of a familiar formula.”



Brahman Naman stars Shashank Arora (who starred in Titli, which premiered at Cannes in 2014) as the title character who leads his quiz-team members, with Tanmany Dhanania and Chaitanya Varad as his sidekicks. The cast also includes Vaiswath Shankar, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy and Sid Mallya.