Given his experimental streak, it was only a matter of time before Emraan Hashmi would dive into the digital world. Almost a year after he announced his first collaboration with Netflix, the actor is ready with Bard Of Blood, a web series based on Bilal Siddiqi's book by the same name. The spy thriller also has the distinction of being the first original developed by Shah Rukh Khan's stable, Red Chillies Entertainment, for the streaming giant. mid-day was privy to the first look of the Ribhu Dasgupta-directed series, the trailer of which drops online today.

"You will first spot Kabir Anand in Mumbai as a literature professor, teaching Shakespeare in college. He is then reluctantly pulled into the battlefield because of a certain situation," begins Hashmi of his character, a former spy who has swapped guns and a gritty life for a peaceful existence as a professor in the remote mountains of Panchgani. However, a call from the PMO thrusts him back to the unforgiving terrain of Balochistan where he has to rescue four Indian Intelligence Wing (IIW) officers who have been captured. The actor adds that his character's troubled backstory adds to the layered narrative, that also features Sobhita Dhulipala, Kirti Kulhari and Vineet Kumar Singh in pivotal roles.