Netflix’s upcoming Indian drama Family Business, unveiled under the Next on Netflix 2026 India slate, has sparked early debate online, with viewers drawing comparisons to global corporate dramas such as Succession and Billions.
The series, which revolves around power struggles within a wealthy business family, stars Anil Kapoor and Vijay Varma in lead roles.
Director and co-creator Hansal Mehta has strongly dismissed these comparisons, calling them “lazy” and misleading.
Responding to the chatter, Mehta said that equating Family Business with Western shows simply because it deals with power, money, and family rivalry overlooks originality in storytelling. “Lazy comparisons. Liking Succession or Billions doesn't make every story about power or families a remake. It's the same as calling every crime saga The Godfather, or every political drama House of Cards,” he said.
Mehta acknowledged that stories about ambition and influence often invite surface-level parallels but stressed that Family Business is neither inspired by nor adapted from Succession. “A corporate backdrop may invite surface-level comparisons, but Family Business is not adapted from, inspired by, or remotely similar to Succession in its story, plot, or characters,” he said.
Describing the series as “wholly original,” Mehta added that it draws from Indian corporate conflicts and family dynamics shaped by the country’s unique social, emotional, and economic realities. “I’m a huge admirer of both shows, but our show has its own identity, rooted in a very different socio-cultural world,” he said.
Family Business centres on a powerful billionaire who grooms a promising successor to lead India’s largest conglomerate, only to remove him months later. This decision triggers a bitter struggle for control, marked by fractured alliances, buried secrets, and shifting loyalties, threatening to dismantle the once-respected empire.
Alongside Kapoor and Varma, the series also marks actor Rhea Chakraborty’s return to the screen after her 2021 film Chehre.