Smriti Mundhra producing financial crimes, family drama for HBO

Indian American filmmaker’s limited series is about Beverley Schottenstein’s legal case against her grandsons

Indian American filmmake Smriti Mundhra and her production company, Meralta Films are producing a limited series about Beverley Schottenstein’s legal case against her grandsons for HBO Max.

“I can finally share this news! We @MeraltaFilms are producing our first scripted series, with the brilliant Julia Ruchman, @SusannaFogel, Gigi Pritzker and our partners at @hbomax,” she tweeted Thursday.

Read: Indian-American filmmaker Smriti Mundhra wins DGA award (March 15, 2022)

“It will be a wild ride of financial crimes, family drama and matriarchal power. Coming soon!” wrote the Los Angeles based filmmaker. Her production company, Meralta Films, specializes in documentary films and non-fiction content.

The drama is based on the upcoming book “Beverley’s War: A Fractured Family Dynasty. Elder Abuse. Millions in Financial Fraud” by Cathy Schottenstein, which is set to be released in November, Variety reported.

“Beverley Schottenstein said two grandsons who managed her money at JPMorgan forged documents, ran up commissions with inappropriate trading and made her miss tens of millions of dollars in gains. So she decided to teach them all a lesson,” it said citing the official logline,

Julia Ruchman (“The Walking Dead,” “The Son”) is attached to write and executive produce the series. Susanna Fogel (“The Flight Attendant,” “A Small Light”) will direct the pilot and executive produce.

Smriti Mundhra and Nina Anand Aujla of Meralta Films will also executive produce along with Gigi Pritzker for Madison Wells. Cathy Schottenstein will serve as co-executive producer, Variety said.

Mundhra previously directed and produced the documentary short “St. Louis Superman,” which went on to receive an Oscar nomination in 2020. She also created and executive produced the hit Netflix unscripted series “Indian Matchmaking.”

Pritzker previously executive produced the Oscar-winning film “Hell or High Water” and produced the Oscar-winning film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”

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Mundhra won the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival for her first feature documentary film A Suitable Girl, along with her co-director Sarita Khurana.

Born in Los Angeles, California and raised between Los Angeles and Mumbai, India. Her father, Jag Mundhra was also a filmmaker and the first exhibitor of Bollywood films in the United States.

Mundhra obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English from California State University, Northridge and Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in film at the Columbia University School of the Arts in 2010. Then, Mundhra moved to Mumbai to begin production on her documentary directorial debut film, A Suitable Girl.