Mrunal Thakur, Rahul Bose casted as leads in Netflix's Baahubali prequel series

Streaming giant Netflix Inc on Friday announced the cast of the Indian prequel series Baahubali: Before the Beginning at its See What Next event in Asia. The show will star Mrunal Thakur as the lead (Sivagami), Rahul Bose as Skandadasa, Atul Kulkarni, Vaquar Shaikh, Jameel Khan, Siddharth Arora and Anup Soni.

The announcement was made in the presence of Deva Katta (director), Prasad Devineni (producer) and Praveen Sattaru (director) of Baahubali, the magnum opus film.

The upcoming series is the prequel to both the films, which will tell the fans the backstories of the characters from the films. Also, new characters will be introduced in the prequel series of Netflix.

Praveen Sattaru said that the series won't be a South or North Indian stories, but one that caters to a global audience. Besides, those who have not watched the film will not miss anything as the series narrates the beginning. The series is set to release in 2019.

Apart from this, Netflix at the event also unveiled the curtain off its plan for Asia expansion. Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings announced the launch of 17 new originals including nine from India.

The original series from India currently being made includes 'Baahubali: Before the Beginning', 'Bard of Blood' and an official adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight Children'.

At a panel discussion, Simran Sethi, Director, International Originals, India talked about another Indian original 'Leila', with director Deepa Mehta and scriptwriter Urmi Juvekar onboard. The leads for Leila include Huma Qureshi, Sidharth, and Sanjay Suri.