Amazon’s Prime Video launched a movie rental service in India on Thursday, promising to release more than 40 original series and movies, through various partnerships and licensing deals, over the next two years in a key market.

The world’s second-most populous nation with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, India is a valuable market for Amazon and its rivals Netflix and Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ Hotstar.

“We are super excited about the launch,” Gaurav Gandhi, head of Amazon Prime Video India said at a function in a Mumbai hotel, adding that the service would widen customers’ reach and choice. It enables them to pay per movie, instead of a flat monthly fee, Reuters reported.

The move comes five years after the US tech giant launched its streaming service in India, and the company said it planned to more than double its investment in Prime Video over the next five years, but did not give figures.

The company unveiled plans for 40 original series in three Indian languages, some to be produced by top Bollywood directors such as Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar.

Amazon has invested heavily in acquiring and producing local content in India, where, founder Jeff Bezos said in 2020, Prime Video was doing better than anywhere else in the world. Amazon does not break out user numbers by country.

It is also expected to take on heavyweights such as India’s Reliance Industries, Sony Group Corp and Disney in the battle for exclusive digital broadcast rights to the hugely popular Indian Premier League (IPL).

On Wednesday, Reliance and Viacom18 had announced a mouthwatering and potentially disrupting strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems, which is a platform of James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and Uday Shankar, to form one of the largest TV and digital streaming companies in India.

Bodhi Tree Systems is leading a fund raise with a consortium of investors to invest Rs 13,500 crore ( approx $ 1.78 billion) in Viacom18, to jointly build India’s leading entertainment platform and pioneer the media landscape’s transformation to a “streaming-first” approach, the companies involved said in a joint press release.

Meanwhile, unveiling the Indian slate, Gandhi said Thursday, “In tune with our vision to become the most-loved entertainment hub, we have steadily innovated in the way we offer movies to our consumers, from offering films in a post-theatrical early-window to direct-to-service premieres bringing the most anticipated movies to consumers’ living rooms and preferred devices.

“We are deeply committed to grow this segment further and are going bigger on our film licensing partnerships, expanding our co-production initiatives and are now excited to announce our foray into original movies.”

According to media reports some of the shows include anthology series ‘Modern Love’ in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu; supernatural thriller ‘Adhura’, cop drama ‘Bambai Meri Jaan’; female-focused series ‘Hush Hush’ and Telugu shows like horror ‘Dhootha’.

Some of the other shows include  ‘Crash Course; ‘Dahaad’, ‘Farzi’, ‘Gulkanda Tales’, ‘Jubilee’, ‘PI Meena’ and ‘Breathe: Into The Shadows’, while   licensing deals include those with  Ajay Devgn FFilms for four upcoming films, KJo’s Dharma Productions for three future films, Excel Entertainment for five upcoming films and five films of Yash Raj Films