MUMBAI: The Amazon Original series American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories on 7 April.

The series tells the story of Playboy magazine’s charismatic founder, Hugh Hefner, who set out to disrupt the status quo and created one of the most recognizable brands in history. The docuseries combines archival footage, pulling from thousands of hours from Hefner’s personal archives; interviews with notable figures including Jesse Jackson, Gene Simmons and Bill Maher; and cinematic reenactments.

Amazon Prime Video members will be able to stream all 10 episodes of the docuseries and can also download the series to mobile devices for offline viewing.

“At a time when civil rights are more in the news than ever, Prime members will be delighted to learn more about the Playboy brand and its contributions in that area,” said Amazon Originals head of unscripted Conrad Riggs. “This series will offer the unprecedented, behind-the-scenes story of Hefner’s life and his fight to protect and advance essential American rights, including free speech.”

American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story is produced by the Emmy award-winning Stephen David Entertainment, a Banijay Group company, and Playboy Enterprises’ production company Alta Loma Entertainment, and executive produced by Stephen David, Peter Jaysen and longtime Playboy executive Dick Rosenzweig with co-executive producers Shirley Escott and Tim Kelly.

It begins in post-war America and takes us through the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953 and the next six decades of Hefner’s life and career. As he built his empire, Hefner became both a social justice advocate and a target of the conservative movement while becoming an outspoken defender of civil rights, freedom of speech, gay rights and, of course, sexual freedom.

The series is the result of unprecedented access to thousands of hours of never-before-seen footage from both Hefner’s and the Playboy archives and Hefner’s personal scrapbooks, which number more than 2,900 and constitute a Guinness World Record. The 90-year-old Hefner has been deeply involved in the development and production of American Playboy, imbuing the series with rich first-person accounts and never-before-told stories.