Saif to star in Netflix's Sacred Games

Sacred Games has crime and intrigue at the heart of the novel on which it is based.

More than a year ago, Variety revealed that novelist Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games would be Netflix's first original series in India.

Netflix invented the Web series genre with its expensive multi-part show, House of Cards.

Sacred Games has crime and intrigue at the heart of the novel and earned Vikram Chandra a million dollar advance.

Even though it won a handful of awards, the novel was a poor seller and has taken 11 years to make the transition from page to screen project.

Netflix will produce Sacred Games in conjunction with Phantom Films, helmed by the likes of Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane.

Vikram Chandra has strong Bollywood links -- his mum Kamna Chandra wrote Raj Kapoor's Prem Rog, Yash Chopra's Chandni as well as 1942: A Love Story, which was directed by her future son-in-law Vidhu Vinod Chopra,

While one of Vikram's sisters Tanuja Chandra is a film director, having directed Dushmun and Sunghursh, the other, Anupama Chopra, is one of Bollywood's leading film critics.

Saif himself has worked in two Vidhu Vinod Chopra films, the memorable Parineeta and the less impressive Eklavaya, The Royal Guard.