The eight-episode spy thriller, based on Bilal Siddiqi’s book Bard of Blood, will be produced in a range of languages, including Hindi, Urdu and English.

“We have always tried to create world class content and entertainment from India,” said Shah Rukh Khan (pictured, left). “Netflix has shown that Indian stories have a global audience and we would love to use this platform and its reach to tell more stories.”

The series centres on an expelled spy, Kabir Anand, who is recalled from his new life as a professor of Shakespeare in Panchgani, to “save his country and his long lost love” in a race against time.

“The series will involve intricate, highly stylised action sequences never before seen on screen in India,” the companies said in a statement.

Netflix’s collaboration with Red Chillies began in December 2016, when it struck an output deal with the production house for both library titles and each new film the company makes over a three-year period.

Reed Hastings (pictured, right), founder and CEO of Netflix, said: “It’s exciting to deepen our relationship with Red Chillies and expand our slate of originals in India.

“We are thrilled to work with a brilliant young writer like Bilal Siddiqi and take his gripping, inventive storytelling to Netflix members worldwide,” he added.

The move marks another literary adaptation for Netflix in India, following the already commissioned series Sacred Games, based on Vikram Chandra’s bestseller, and Selection Day, based on a novel by Booker Prize winner Arvind Adiga.

“Content is best when it really has a local flavour, but then it is approachable by other people,” Hastings said in a CNBC-TV18 interview while in India, promising viewers a “rapid increase” in Indian content available on the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service.