Seven New Movies and Shows Bringing Love, Action, Dance and Drama to Your Screen

The Friday OTT ritual has become something of a modern Indian weekend tradition: finish the week’s work, order something to eat, pick up the remote and then spend twenty minutes deciding what to watch.

This week, at least, the streaming platforms have made that decision slightly more complicated.

From September 18, 2026, Netflix, JioHotstar, SonyLIV and Amazon Prime Video bring a diverse collection of new films and series — ranging from contemporary Indian relationship stories and Malayalam action thrillers to a Joseon-era Korean romance and a Bollywood-fusion dance comedy set in an American university.

The lineup is particularly interesting because it reflects how international streaming has changed the Indian viewer’s entertainment menu. A viewer in Mumbai, Delhi, Dubai, Singapore or London can now move from a Malayalam action film to a Korean period drama and then to an American film built around Indian dance culture — all in the same evening.

Here are the major releases worth knowing about.

Lust Stories 3 — Netflix

The most prominent Indian release of the week is Lust Stories 3, the third instalment of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated anthology franchise.

The film brings together four directors — Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj — for four separate stories examining love, desire, intimacy and complicated relationships.

The ensemble includes Konkona Sen Sharma, Radhika Apte, Aditi Rao Hydari, Radhika Madan, Vijay Varma, Ali Fazal, Siddharth, Abhishek Banerjee, Sana Thampi and Gurfateh Pirzada.

The anthology format gives the film an advantage that conventional sequels do not always have: viewers are effectively getting four different cinematic approaches under one title.

Netflix has scheduled the film for September 18.

Thudakkam — JioHotstar

For viewers looking for action rather than relationship drama, Malayalam film Thudakkam takes a very different route.

The film stars Vismaya Mohanlal as Meenu, a martial-arts practitioner living with her father in Idukki. Her relatively quiet existence changes after a dangerous encounter involving a contract killer.

Her disappearance sets the story into motion, with survival and combat becoming central to the narrative.

The film is particularly notable as a major acting vehicle for Vismaya Mohanlal, and its Idukki setting gives the action thriller a distinctly Kerala backdrop rather than treating the location merely as scenery.

Kattalan — SonyLIV

Kattalan moves into darker territory.

Set around the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border, the Malayalam thriller revolves around rival ivory-poaching operations. The conflict involves Maari, played by Sunil, and Eddy, played by Kabir Duhan Singh.

Antony Varghese plays Antony, a feared poacher recruited into the confrontation.

The subject matter gives the film an important environmental dimension beneath its action-thriller surface. Ivory trafficking is not simply another cinematic criminal enterprise; it is connected to the illegal killing of elephants and the wider problem of wildlife trafficking.

That makes Kattalan potentially more interesting than a straightforward gangster-versus-gangster story — provided the ecological consequences remain part of the film’s dramatic framework.

The Scandal — Netflix

From Kerala’s forests, the OTT journey jumps several centuries and thousands of kilometres to Joseon-era Korea.

The Scandal, starring Son Ye-jin, Ji Chang-wook and NANA, is a period romance inspired by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ classic novel Les Liaisons dangereuses.

At its centre is a dangerous wager involving Lady Cho, Cho Won and Hui-yeon. What begins as a calculated game of seduction gradually develops into something considerably more unpredictable.

Netflix describes the series as a reimagining of the classic story through a modern sensibility while retaining its historical setting.

For Indian viewers who have helped make Korean dramas an increasingly familiar part of mainstream streaming culture, this is another example of how global entertainment now arrives without the old geographical barriers.

Best of the Best — Netflix

Perhaps the most interesting title from an Indian-diaspora perspective is Best of the Best.

The comedy follows childhood friends Maya, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Anjali, played by Priyanka Kedia, after they join UCLA’s competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team.

Their objective is the U.S. championship, but competition begins testing their friendship and ambitions.

The film is directed by Lena Khan and also features Ankur Rathee, Janina Gavankar, Hasan Minhaj and Lilly Singh among its cast.

There is something culturally significant about the premise. Bollywood dance is no longer simply something exported from India and consumed abroad. It has become part of the cultural vocabulary of diaspora communities and multicultural youth in countries such as the United States.

The film turns that phenomenon into the setting for a coming-of-age comedy.

And yes, there will presumably be plenty of dramatic dance rehearsals. Because apparently friendship is incomplete until someone misses a beat eight counts before the finale.

You+Me – Against the World — Amazon Prime Video

Another romantic addition to the week’s releases is You+Me – Against the World.

Based on Emma Green’s bestselling trilogy, the story follows Alma, an aspiring filmmaker who hides her ambitions from her wealthy family, and Vadim, a rebellious man with a troubled past.

Their relationship develops while working on a film project but becomes complicated when an anonymous stalker begins sending threatening messages.

The combination of romance, filmmaking and suspense gives this title a somewhat different flavour from a conventional romantic drama.

Minerva Academy — Netflix

The seventh Friday release highlighted by GQ is Minerva Academy, an Italian drama set inside a strict military academy in Naples.

The story follows three cadets — Salvo, Vincenzo and Camilla — as they navigate discipline, family expectations and the pressures of academy life.

With romance and mobile phones prohibited, the students’ lives become increasingly complicated as secrets emerge.

It is a familiar coming-of-age formula placed inside an unusually restrictive environment.

The bigger OTT story

The most interesting feature of this week’s releases is not that one particular title dominates the others. It is the range.

There is Hindi-language anthology cinema, Malayalam action, Korean period drama, an American comedy built around Bollywood dance, Italian youth drama and international romance.

That diversity reflects the real transformation of streaming.

Television once asked audiences to choose what the broadcaster had scheduled. OTT increasingly asks a different question:

What kind of story do you feel like watching tonight?

And that is why a single Friday can now offer a Joseon court intrigue, a Kerala survival thriller and a UCLA Bollywood dance competition without anyone finding the combination particularly strange.

Doonited Editorial Perspective

The strongest lesson from this week’s OTT slate is the growing borderlessness of entertainment.

Indian audiences are consuming Korean dramas, European series and American films while Indian stories and Indian cultural forms are simultaneously travelling in the opposite direction.

Best of the Best is a particularly revealing example: Bollywood-inspired dance becomes the cultural centre of an American college comedy, while its cast includes performers connected to Indian and South Asian backgrounds.

Meanwhile, Lust Stories 3, Thudakkam and Kattalan demonstrate the continuing ability of Indian-language cinema to create stories specifically rooted in local cultures and landscapes while reaching audiences through global streaming platforms.

The meaningful takeaway for viewers is simple: the modern OTT library is becoming less about where a story comes from and more about whether the story gives us a reason to stay.

So, this weekend, choose according to mood.

Want complicated relationships? There is Lust Stories 3.

Want fists, forests and survival? Try Thudakkam or Kattalan.

Want historical romance and dangerous games? The Scandal is waiting.

Want friendship, dance and diaspora culture? Best of the Best has its stage ready.

Just remember: the hardest part of OTT remains unchanged.

Finding something to watch is still easier than deciding what to watch.