Three bankers seek to break Bollywood cliches with a $15 million war chest

India has become a battleground for global streaming giants from Netflix to Amazon.com and Walt Disney-owned Hotstar

A tiny digital studio is making a name for itself in the world’s most prolific movie industry, scoring funding from a marquee Silicon Valley investor right after nailing a deal to stream its most popular show on Netflix.

Pocket Aces Pvt has raised $14.7 million from Sequoia Capital, DSP Group, 3one4 Capital and others to bankroll content aimed at pushing Indian shows beyond hackneyed Bollywood formulas -- like “saas-bahu” or mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law dramas. It’s one of a band of startups moving away from familiar staples to try and hook an exploding population of mobile viewers. Pocket Aces plans to