EXCLUSIVE: And Just Like That… standout Sarita Choudhury is set to headline another potential series for HBO Max. Choudhury is starring and executive producing in The Colony, a one-hour drama written/executive produced by Sonejuhi Sinha and Charlotte Rabate. It is based on the 2018 feature Stray Dolls, written and produced by Sinha and Rabate and directed by Sinha. Nicholas Weinstock (Severance) is executive producing through his company Invention Studios.
The Colony is a suspenseful and darkly humorous twisted family drama, exposing the pressures and tropes facing an immigrant family and what happens when they are dragged into a world of crime. Loosely based on the world of Stray Dolls, it’s a story about an unlikely criminal coming into her own and the noble aspiration of success in America turning to perversion.
Choudhury stars in HBO Max’s Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That… alongside Stray Dolls‘ Cynthia Nixon. Her character Seema Patel, Carrie Bradshaw’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) realtor, struck a chord with viewers, and Seema, with her outgoing and confident demeanor with a relatable backstory of a single woman whose parents won’t stop nagging her to find a good man to marry, became a fan favorite. Her recent credits also included the movies The Green Knight, After Yang and It Shows In Benidorm and the series Little Fires Everywhere and Blindspot, is repped by David Lewis at Buchwald and Katherine Atkinson at Washington Square Films.
Sinha, who grew up in Northern India, got her start in the industry working as a film editor. Her directing career began with a narrative short film, Love Comes Later, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Sinha was selected for Shoot’s New Director’s Showcase in New York and participated in Tribeca Film Institute’s Through Her Lens program. She is the recipient of the Jerome Foundation development grant for her feature debut, Stray Dolls, which starred Cynthia Nixon, Rob Aramayo, Olivia Dejonge and Geetanjali Thapa, and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, winning a Special Jury Mention For Lead Performance and won TFI’S IWC award. She is repped by CAA, Bash Naran at Writ Large, and attorney Ashley Nissenberg.
Rabate is a French-Syrian writer, director and producer who attended the Hamptons Screenwriters lab, the Torino Film Lab and the Cine Qua Non Lab with her feature script Samir, the Accidental Spy, which she will also direct. Rabate, a Rawi Screenwriters lab fellow and a Berlinale Talent, is repped by attorney Ashley Nissenberg.
Weinstock most served as executive producer of the Ben Stiller-exec produced and directed series, Escape At Dannemora on Showtime and Severance on Apple+. Through the TV partnership with Fremantle for his Invention Studios, the company has series and feature films set up at Amazon, Paramount, HBO Max, FilmOne in Nigeria, and beyond. Invention is also the home of Craft Services, an online network and support system for emerging writers and filmmakers across the U.S. and in Mexico, Europe, Australia and Africa. Weinstock is repped by CAA and attorney Aron Baumel.