Breaking Bad is now airing in Hindi, other than in the original English feed. After telecasting Korean drama and Japanese anime, Zee Cafe is turning its dubbing microphone towards American content.

Created by Vince Gilligan, the gripping crime drama, which won 64 Emmy Awards and seven Golden Globe Awards over its five seasons, showcases the transformation of the lead character Walter White from a high-school chemistry teacher to a methamphetamine producer in order to save his family’s future after being detected with inoperable lung cancer. Even after more than 10 years of its production, it is a highest rated show on IMDb and is currently available in English on Netflix.

With Zee Cafe starting the telecast of the dubbed version, the cult show will be available for the first time in a local Indian language.

Zee Cafe has been bringing foreign language content and already had K-Drama and animes in its programming. “Our dubbing initiative started in December 2022. A dedicated slot, 2pm-4pm on weekdays, was identified, with the first language option being English and the second being Hindi,” Rishi Parekh, chief channel officer, English cluster, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, told t2.

The first show the channel had picked for Hindi dubbing was a season of MasterChef Australia, one of the most loved cooking shows around the globe. “After that, we launched anime in original, with Hindi as second language,” he said.

Breaking Bad, being a big property, is positioned as a primetime show. “The original feed airs at 10pm in English and it will have three repeats in the day when we will show both the original and Hindi,” Parekh said.

Breaking Bad had been beamed in India on AXN before the channel shut down, around 2016-17. “It is a cult show premiered by another broadcaster in the past but we will be the first ones to bring it in Hindi. I know a lot of people have watched it in English but we wanted to reach out to a larger mass, which does not have access to all the OTT platforms, in a language that they understand,” he said.

Another channel from the same network, Zee Zindagi, had been a pioneer in bringing foreign non-English content by introducing Pakistani, Turkish and Korean drama before it was shut down. But Parekh said filling the vacuum left by Zindagi’s exit in the television airspace was not what prompted their move. “We are looking to bring quality content to this territory and give it a wide appeal so that everyone can enjoy content beyond the borders. Replicating Zindagi was not our agenda when we started out. We saw the gap where people were ready to consume fresh content but wanted language options. And that’s what we are providing them,” he said.

Hollywood is growing in popularity in India. “It is no longer perceived as English-based content. A lot of new theatrical releases, like Spider-Man and Avatar, are dubbed in regional languages and these are generating great revenue. The dubs for south (Indian) films are massive. People want to watch content in languages that they are comfortable in and as long as it’s good content, they are happy to consume it in multiple languages. Apart from the English-speaking viewers, we, at Zee Cafe, want to reach out to a larger viewer base which is not ‘English-comfortable’, by making shows available to them even in their own local languages. That is something that everybody looks forward to.”

Breaking Bad was lapped up as a suggestion by viewers before they started airing it, Parekh said. “We do social listening on what people want. We had got massive feedback when we asked about anime on our social media handles. Breaking Bad too got a great response.”

Anime still remains at the forefront of Zee Café’s programming. “Korean drama and anime have received a lot of love. Anime has garnered over two million-plus views and three million-plus reach. Over 200 fan clubs are engaging with us. The Korean drama shows have got one million views ever since we started airing them in April with English subtitles.”

A scene from the Emmy-winning show Breaking Bad, which is airing on Zee Cafe with both English and Hindi feeds

Now with Breaking Bad airing since August 28, the channel’s offerings in the dubbed space have extended to Korean drama, anime and cult drama, taking the slot duration up from two hours on weekdays to six hours. “Now viewers are asking us to bring specific shows that they want to see,” Parekh said.

But shows from Pakistan, which were the trump card of Zindagi, are not on Zee Cafe’s radar. “Urdu is too close to Hindi to require dubbing,” he clarified.

Breaking Bad airs Monday to Friday, at 10pm and repeats at 10am, 1pm and 4pm on Zee Cafe