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April 2022 is full of new film and series releases on Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Apple TV+, SonyLIV, Amazon Prime Video, Voot Select, Mubi, Zee5, and JioCinema. From India, we have the third season of comedy-drama Gullak — known for its middle-class musings — dropping April 7 on SonyLIV. On the same day over on Netflix and JioCinema, Abhishek Bachchan’s uneducated Chief Minister studies for board exams on the comedy movie Dasvi. A week later on April 15 with Mai, Netflix gives us Sakshi Tanwar as a docile housewife who transforms into a merciless killer as she seeks revenge for the death of her daughter. You can catch Kunal Kemmu’s cop battling new threats in Abhay season 3 from April 8 on Zee5. And Shreyas Talpade turns into a cricketer on Kaun Pravin Tambe?, out already on Disney+ Hotstar.
From international waters, we await the return of several excellent shows (alongside promising new ones). Better Call Saul is expected to begin its sixth and final season on April 19/20 on Netflix in India, as Bob Odenkirk completes his transformation into Saul Goodman. Russian Doll season 2 has more time-related adventures for Natasha Lyonne, clicking in April 20 on Netflix. Elisabeth Moss hunts for a time-travelling serial killer in Shining Girls from April 29 on Apple TV+. On the same day over on Amazon Prime Video, Rosa Salazar’s time-bending protagonist continues her adventures in Undone season 2. Bill Hader’s hitman returns for Barry season 3, starting April 25 on Disney+ Hotstar. And a new semester begins in Elite season 5, April 8 on Netflix.
Mai, Dasvi, Ozark 4 Part 2, Better Call Saul 6, and More on Netflix in April
Ozark is set to wrap up with the second part of its fourth season laundering in April 29 on Netflix. A British politician is accused of sexual assault and taken to court in Anatomy of a Scandal, filing in April 15 on Netflix. On the same day over on Apple TV+, Nicole Kidman leads an anthology series about women in Roar. Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gillian Anderson play US First Ladies in The First Lady, out April 15 on Voot Select. Chiwetel Ejiofor’s alien crash lands on Earth in The Man Who Fell to Earth, beaming in April 24 on Voot Select. Gary Oldman leads a dysfunctional spy agency in Slow Horses that premiered April 1 on Apple TV+. Josh Brolin’s rancher is pulled into a sci-fi mystery in Outer Range, out April 15 on Prime Video.
If you have been catching up on Oscar-winning movies following the ceremony, you will be glad to know that Drive My Car is now available on Mubi. There’s a lot of other movies too in April 2022. We have a new Richard Linklater effort in Apollo 10 ½ that shot off April 1 on Netflix. Judd Apatow delivers his pandemic quarantine movie with The Bubble, that also popped in April 1 on Netflix. Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton lead the thriller All the Old Knives, cutting in April 8 on Amazon Prime Video. On the same day on Netflix, Game of Thrones creator D.B. Weiss gives us a high school effort in Metal Lords. You might want to check out the musical Better Nate Than Ever that’s out already on Disney+ Hotstar.
That’s not all. You can find the full list of OTT premieres in April 2022 for your perusal at the very end. And before that, you can read more about some of these aforementioned movies and web series below. We don’t have the time to talk about all of them in detail.
With that, here’s our April 2022 streaming guide to Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Apple TV+, SonyLIV, Amazon Prime Video, Voot Select, Mubi, Zee5, and JioCinema.
Drive My Car
When: April 1
Where: Mubi
Less than a week after it won the 2022 Oscar for Best International Feature Film — adding to its previous wins: BAFTA, Golden Globe, and best screenplay at Cannes — Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s critically-acclaimed three-hour drama arrives in India.
In Drive My Car, a grieving theatre director (Hidetoshi Nishijima) forms a bond with his new chauffeur (Tōko Miura) while directing a multilingual production of Anton Chekhov’s famed Uncle Vanya in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name, though it’s inspired by other stories that were part of Murakami’s 2014 collection Men Without Women.
Masaki Okada plays a brash young actor, Reika Kirishima plays Nishijima’s wife, and there are roles for Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Perry Dizon, and Satoko Abe.
Kaun Pravin Tambe?
When: April 1
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
For the second time in his career — following 2005’s Iqbal from Nagesh Kukunoor — Shreyas Talpade plays a cricketer defying great odds. Only this time, the story is not fictional. Having never played for his native Mumbai let alone the national team, 41-year-old Pravin Tambe made history in 2013 after he was directly drafted into the Indian Premier League, the biggest tournament of its kind.
Ashish Vidyarthi, Anjali Patil, Chayya Kadam, and Arun Nalawade play Pravin’s coach, wife, mother, and father respectively, with Parambrata Chatterjee as fictional sportswriter Rajat Sanyal who spotted Tambe in invitational tournaments. Jayprad Desai — who helmed every episode of Zee5’s Marathi-langauge series Hutatma — is the director on Kaun Pravin Tambe?.
Dasvi
When: April 7
Where: JioCinema, Netflix
Caught in a teacher recruitment scam and imprisoned under tough cop Jyoti Deswal (Yami Gautam), uneducated and proudful Chief Minister Ganga Ram Chaudhary (Abhishek Bachchan) vows to pass Class 10th board exams — hence the film’s title, which is Hindi for tenth — and get his secondary school certificate. Meanwhile out in the world, Ganga Ram’s scheming wife Bimla Devi (Nimrat Kaur) who has been raised to the position of chief minister in his absence, has plans of her own.
Manu Rishi Chadha, Chittaranjan Tripathi, Danish Husain, Arun Kushwaha, Dhanveer Singh, Abhimanyu Yadav, Shivankit Singh Parihar, and Sumit Roy are also part of the Dasvi movie cast. Tushar Jalota — previously an assistant or associate director on the likes of Barfi! and Padmaavat — makes his directorial debut on Dasvi. Ritesh Shah and Suresh Nair (Airlift), and producer Sandeep Leyzell are responsible for the screenplay.
Gullak Season 3
When: April 7
Where: SonyLIV
In the third season, the ups and downs of the Mishra family continues — while the elder son Anand (Vaibhav Raj Gupta) is now contributing as the second earning member (and also thinking of ways to spend said money), the head of the household Santosh (Jameel Khan) is suspended after he refuses to play internal politics and support the union.
Returning cast members on Gullak season 3 include Geetanjali Kulkarni as the female lead Shanti Mishra, Harsh Mayar as the younger son Aman Mishra, and Sunita Rajwar as Bittu Ki Mummy. Palash Vaswani and Durgesh Singh — who directed and wrote every season 2 episode, respectively — return in their capacities on season 3.
TVF founder Arunabh Kumar, who had stepped away from the company for three years owing to multiple sexual harassment allegations, is the producer on Gullak season 3. All episodes will be available together on the release date, April 7.
Anatomy of a Scandal
When: April 15
Where: Netflix
For his first Netflix (anthology) series, Emmy winner David E. Kelley — known for Chicago Hope, Boston Legal, and Big Little Lies — delivers a mix of courtroom drama and psychological thriller. In it, after a powerful British politician is accused of violating sexual consent and brought to trial, the privileged life of the wife unravels as scandalous secrets surface.
Sienna Miller, Michelle Dockery, Rupert Friend, and Naomi Scott lead the cast of Anatomy of a Scandal. S.J. Clarkson (The Defenders, Succession) directs all six episodes — which will be available together on release date, April 15. Kelley is co-creator here with Melissa James Gibson (House of Cards), with the duo adapting the Netflix series from the Sarah Vaughan novel of the same name.
Mai
When: April 15
Where: Netflix
With her world turned upside down following the sudden death of her daughter Supriya Chaudhary (Wamiqa Gabbi), 47-year-old docile wife-and-mother Sheel Chaudhary (Sakshi Tanwar) digs for clear answers. As her investigation pulls her into a (metaphorical) parallel universe of white-collar crime and dirty politics, Sheel transforms from meek to merciless, diving deep into a rabbit hole of violence. The Mai trailer suggests that violence comes a little too naturally to her.
Vivek Mushran, Anant Vidhaat, Raima Sen, Ankur Ratan, Prashant Narayan, Vaibhav Raj Gupta, and Seema Pahwa star alongside in Mai. Atul Mongia — previously acting workshop and casting director on dozens of Bollywood movies — is the creator and showrunner on Mai. Mongia and Anshai Lal (Phillauri) directed episodes, while Mongia also wrote Mai alongside Tamal Sen (Zee5’s Kaali), and Amita Vyas (The Fame Game).
All Mai episodes will be released at once April 15 on Netflix.
Watch the Trailer for Mai, Netflix’s Next Indian Series
Roar
When: April 15
Where: Apple TV+
Nicole Kidman, Cynthia Erivo, Merritt Wever, Issa Rae, Alison Brie, and Betty Gilpin lead the ensemble cast of this darkly-comedic episodic anthology series that comes from Netflix’s GLOW creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch.
Per Apple, Roar will feature “a unique blend of magical realism, familiar domestic and professional scenarios, and futuristic worlds”, as it offers “an insightful, poignant, and sometimes hilarious portrait of what it means to be a woman today.”
Based on Cecelia Ahern’s 2019 book of short stories. Unlike most other Apple TV+ series that air new episodes weekly, Roar will be available for binge viewing, with all eight episodes released at once on April 15.
Better Call Saul Season 6
When: April 19/20
Where: Netflix
Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is back, for the final time. Now closer than ever to his Breaking Bad persona Saul Goodman, the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul — split into two parts, just as the final season of Breaking Bad was — will shed light on the big questions.
What happened to fellow lawyer and Jimmy’s wife Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn)? How does the Juárez Cartel lieutenant Nacho (Michael Mando) survive what’s coming after the botched assassination attempt of Salamanca family’s acting head Lalo (Tony Dalton)? And is there a future for Cinnabon store manager Gene Takavic (Odenkirk)?
The Breaking Bad spin-off is going out with its biggest season yet — 13 episodes, three more than usual. (That also means Better Call Saul will end with 63 episodes, one more than Breaking Bad’s count.)
Better Call Saul season 6 begins April 18 on AMC in the US, and April 19 on Netflix in the UK, Ireland, and other international markets. Given the India release dates of previous Better Call Saul seasons, I would expect the sixth and final season to begin either April 19 or April 20 on Netflix here.
The sixth and final season begins with a two-episode premiere, followed by one episode a week until May 23. Then following a month-and-a-half long break, Better Call Saul season 6 resumes July 11 (in the US) and will conclude August 15.
Russian Doll Season 2
When: April 20
Where: Netflix
It’s been three years since we were treated to Natasha Lyonne’s caustic birthday girl endlessly reliving her 36th birthday after dying over and over — but in the world of Russian Doll, it’s been four years. And though Nadia Vulvokov (Lyonne) and Alan Zaveri (Charlie Barnett) might have escaped the time loop, it seems Russian Doll season 2 has a worse fate in mind for them.
After they discover a time portal in Manhattan, Nadia and Alan see it as a way to experience their lives in an expanding intergenerational dimension. But soon, they realise it’s a lot more than what they imagined — and begin looking for a way out. As you can tell, Russian Doll is back to dive deeper into existential worries through its sci-fi time-compressed lens.
Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek) is new to Russian Doll season 2. Lyonne (also showrunner), Leslye Headland, and Jamie Babbit return as directors on Russian Doll season 2. All episodes of Russian Doll season 2 will release at once on April 20, as is standard for Netflix originals.
Barry Season 3
When: April 25
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
Just like Russian Doll, hitman turned amateur actor Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) returns after a full three years away. It’s going to pick up from a huge cliffhanger — at the end of season 2, Barry’s old family friend Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root) told Barry’s mentor and acting coach Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) that Barry killed his detective girlfriend Janice Moss.
Additionally, Barry must also attempt to heal his relationship with aspiring actress Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), while reluctant Chechen mafia leader NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) figures out how to move forward after Barry (unknowingly) killed his successor for him. Sarah Burns joins as new detective Mae Dunn, whose job is to stay alive given one detective dies every season on Barry.
Barry season 3 begins April 24 on HBO and HBO Max in the US, and is expected to premiere April 25 on Disney+ Hotstar given past seasons did so a day after. New episodes weekly, like always.
Shining Girls
When: April 29
Where: Apple TV+
After surviving a brutal assault, a Chicago news reporter (Elisabeth Moss) teams up with a veteran reporter (Narcos’ Wagner Moura) to investigate a serial killer (Jamie Bell) who they believe is linked to multiple women’s murders over decades. She discovers that he’s been watching her ever since she was a child. Wait, can he travel through time?
Phillipa Soo and Amy Brenneman also star. Silka Luisa (Strange Angel) adapted Shining Girls based on Lauren Beukes’s 2013 novel of the same name. Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad), Daina Reid (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Moss herself make up the all-woman directing team.
The eight-episode Shining Girls begins with three episodes on April 29, followed by one episode a week thereafter every Friday.