The first teaser for Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming comedy series Bait has landed — and it turns a casual James Bond rumour into full-blown South Asian household chaos. At the heart of it all is veteran Pakistani actor Sajid Hasan, delivering a scene-stealing turn as the perfectly deadpan desi father to Riz Ahmed’s perpetually overwhelmed lead.
Created by and starring Ahmed, Bait follows Shah Latif, a struggling British-Pakistani actor whose quiet life is upended when the media begins speculating that he could be the next James Bond. What should be a career milestone quickly spirals into a domestic circus.
Set almost entirely in a living room that will feel uncomfortably familiar to anyone raised in a South Asian household, the teaser opens with Shah’s sister (Aasiya Shah) breathlessly reading out a report claiming her brother is Bond-bound. After confirming it’s “legit,” the parents enter — Sheeba Chaddha as the already triumphant mother and Hasan as the father who cuts through the excitement with one brutally practical question: “Did Craig Daniel die?”
While Shah insists it’s just an audition, his mother is already christening him “Super James Bond, my Shaju,” complete with proud shoulder rubs. Guz Khan’s sceptical relative, meanwhile, objects on racial grounds — “James Bond is white” — before launching into a baffling but passionate concern about Bond’s sex life.
As voices rise and optimism runs wild, Hasan’s character remains the household realist, cautioning, “This is their country, don’t provoke them,” even as the family begins imagining life after global superstardom. The biggest laugh comes when he offers to step in as a body double for the sex scenes — an idea his on-screen wife shuts down instantly. Same desi dad energy, global stakes.
Though his screen time in the teaser is brief, seeing a seasoned Pakistani actor effortlessly hold his own in a major international production feels quietly significant — even if the show itself treats it as perfectly normal.
Beyond the family frenzy, Bait promises a sharp look at Shah Latif’s struggle to prove himself worthy of a career-defining role while juggling expectations from his family, an ex-lover and a public newly obsessed with what he represents. First-look images suggest a fast-paced comedy layered with emotional stakes around ambition, visibility and the cost of success when representation becomes a burden.
That tension runs through the teaser as Shah repeatedly tries — and largely fails — to explain that even being considered for a “brown James Bond” is an achievement worth celebrating.
The six-episode series also stars Guz Khan, Aasiya Shah and Sheeba Chaddha, and premieres on Prime Video on March 25, with all episodes dropping simultaneously across more than 240 countries and territories.
With Riz Ahmed steering Bait both on screen and behind the scenes, the series looks set to skewer the entertainment industry’s fixation on representation — while honestly confronting how heavy that spotlight can feel when it lands on just one person.
