Erik Barmack, the vice president of Netflix, came across Vikram Chandra's 2006 crime novel, Sacred

Games, while they were searching for content for Indian and the global audience. He called it "an
interesting property" and decided to adapt it in Indian language.[5] They decided to
approach Phantom Films while looking for director and producer for the series.[5] In 2014, writer-
director Vikramaditya Motwane met the team of Netflix during his visit to Los Angeles.[6] Motwane
had read Chandra's earlier novel Love and Longing in Bombay where the character of Sartaj Singh
was introduced. After the meeting, he read Sacred Games and thought it was "great".[7] He said the
best thing for him was that they wanted to make it in Hindi and not in English, as according to him
"speaking in English can seem so fake at times."[5] He started working on the adaptation of the novel
with writer Varun Grover and described the writing as the "biggest challenge".[6]
Motwane said that the digital series medium was "liberating" as he was able to tell stories that "don't
have to be told in two-and-a-half hours with an interval and three songs inserted into it."[8] Initially,
Motwane considered bringing different directors on board for each episode: "As we got closer to
production, we realised that dates were clashing and that it was an overall nightmare [..]."[9] He
suggested that Anurag Kashyap co-direct the series with him, as Motwane felt that the two "distinct
voices" were essential for the "parallel tracks" of story. Kashyap said he "gobbled" on the opportunity
as he was fascinated with the novel.[6] Kashyap had read the novel in 2006 when it came out. In
2014, he had been approached by AMC from Scott Free Productions to direct a series in
English.[10] Kashyap had declined the offer, as he did not want to do "anything based in India in
English".[11] Motwane and his writers gave the scripts to Chandra for feedback. "Chandra is so
research-intensive that we didn't have to approach another researcher, we just had to ask him
questions."[9] The series was written by Grover, Smita Singh, and Vasant Nath.[12] One of the writers,
Smita Singh, said that in 2016, they were told by Phantom Films to adapt the novel and "it had to be
a gripping, slow-burner".[13] The research was headed by Smita Nair and Mantra Watsa, who
summarised every chapter and made the "complex plot easily accessible" to the writers.[13] The entire
script was completed in a year.[13] Nath said that in the beginning of the writing process, they were
"chucking away some important characters from the original, and bringing in new ones".[13] It is the
first Indian original series for Netflix.[6]
The episode titles are inspired by Hindu mythology. The first episode titled "Aswatthama", was based
on the namesake character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. He was cursed with immortality
by Krishna after the Kurukshetra war. In the series, Gaitonde calls himself immortal
like Ashwatthama, but later commits suicide.[14] "Halahala", another episode, was named after
a poison of the same name, which was retrieved from Samudra manthan.[14] Aatapi and Vatapi were
two demons who used to trick travellers with hospitality and kill them.[14] Brahmahatya means killing
of a Brahmin, which is a crime in Hinduism. In the episode, the H

Sacred Games (TV series)

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Sacred Games
Genre Crime

Conspiracy

Thriller

Mystery

Based on Sacred Games

by Vikram Chandra

 Varun Grover
Written by
 Smita Singh

 Vasant Nath

 Dhruv Narang

 Pooja Varma

 Nihit Bhave
[1]

Directed by  Anurag Kashyap

 Vikramaditya Motwane

 Neeraj Ghaywan

Starring  Saif Ali Khan

 Nawazuddin Siddiqui

 Radhika Apte

 Pankaj Tripathi

 Kalki Koechlin

 Ranvir Shorey

Theme music composer Alokananda Dasgupta

Composer(s) Songs:

Phenom
 Divine

Rachita Arora
Background Score:

Alokananda Dasgupta

Country of origin India

Original language(s) Hindi

No. of seasons 2

No. of episodes 16 (list of episodes)

Production

Executive producer(s)  Kelly Luegenbiehl

 Erik Barmack

 Vikramaditya Motwane

Production location(s) India

Cinematography  Swapnil Sonawane

 Sylvester Fonseca

 Aseem Bajaj

Editor(s) Aarti Bajaj

Running time 43–58 minutes[2]

Production company(s) Phantom Films

Distributor Netflix

Release

Original network Netflix

Picture format 4K (UHDTV)[3]

Original release 6 July 2018 –

present

External links

Website

Sacred Games is an Indian web television thriller series based on Vikram Chandra's 2006 novel of
the same name. The first Netflix original series in India, it is directed by Vikramaditya
 Motwane and Anurag Kashyap, who produced it under their banner Phantom Films. The novel was
adapted by Varun Grover, Smita Singh and Vasant Nath. Kelly Luegenbiehl, Erik Barmack and
Motwane served as the executive producers.
Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) is a troubled police officer in Mumbai who receives a phone call from
gangster Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who tells him to save the city within 25 days. The
series chronicles the events that follow. Other cast members include Radhika Apte, Girish
Kulkarni, Neeraj Kabi, Jeetendra Joshi, Rajshri Deshpande, Karan Wahi, Aamir Bashir, Jatin
Sarna, Elnaaz Norouzi, Amey Wagh and Kubra Sait.
The development of Sacred Games started after Erik Barmack, the Vice-president
of Netflix contacted Motwane to create Indian content for the platform in 2014. They opted to adapt
Chandra's novel in the local Indian language, to which Motwane agreed. After the script was
completed, Motwane asked Kashyap to co-direct; Motwane directed the sequences involving Singh
while Kashyap directed Gaitonde's. Swapnil Sonawane was the director of photography for
Motwane; Sylvester Fonseca and Aseem Bajaj filmed the scenes directed by Kashyap. Aarti
Bajaj was the editor and Alokananda Dasgupta composed the background score.
The first four episodes of Sacred Games premiered on 29 June 2018, with the full season of eight
episodes released on Netflix on 6 July across 191 countries; it had subtitles in more than 20
languages. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for the
performances and writing. The second season premiered on 15 August 2019.

Contents

 1Premise
 2Cast
o 2.1Main
o 2.2Recurring
 3Episodes
 4Production
o 4.1Development
o 4.2Casting and characters
o 4.3Season 1
o 4.4Season 2
 5Release
 6Soundtrack
 7Reception
 8Awards
 9References
 10External links