ITV

Tag: Hoichoi

  • hoichoi is now available on Android TV globally and Roku in the US

    hoichoi is now available on Android TV globally and Roku in the US

    MUMBAI: hoichoi, the world’s largest digital content platform exclusively for Bengali’s announced they are now available across Android TV and Roku with seamless streaming of their content.  

    Recently, hoichoi celebrated their one-year completion on 19th September 2018 where they committed to uplift Bengali Digital entertainment by putting forward plans like adding an additional 100+ hours of Originals with 30 web series and 12 digital only films, which will increase the library to 2,800 hours of content, along with adding more films to the movie catalogue taking the number from 500 to 800+ movies. They have lived up to their promise of giving two Originals per month along with acquired movies, either old classics or new ones via World Digital Premiere (Durga Puja 2018 blockbusters Byomkesh Gowtro and Ek Je Chhilo Raja each got a World Digital Premiere this month).  

    Last year, hoichoi reached out to users who wanted to stream content on their TV by launching the Amazon Fire TV App and the Apple TV App and it already had enabled Chromecast. This year hoichoi looks to expand its audience base by introducing the hoichoi Android TV and the hoichoi Roku App. 

    Android TV is a version of the Android operating system where OTT platforms can stream their exclusive and shared content on their television like Sony among others, with voice-enabled search and more features. hoichoi’s Android TV App is available on the Google Play Store. Users can open the Google Play Store from their TV and download it. 

    Roku, is another streaming device which allows users to stream content on their TV and is very popular in the US Market. hoichoi launched its Roku App to target its ever-growing US Subscription Audience base. Among international markets, US has always been one of the top markets for the Bengali OTT platform. hoichoi will offer all its movies and original series in its Roku App. Users who have the Roku device can download the hoichoi App from it and can even purchase a hoichoi subscription within the App. 

    Vishnu Mohta, Co-Founder of hoichoi, commented: “This partnership with Android TV and Roku will enable our national and global audience to enjoy content from any medium as it marks a seamless integration of over-the-top content, digital video formats and connected TVs. Audience will consume content irrespective of whether it is on web, mobile, TV or OTT as long as it’s on a device of their choice.” 

  • Popular web series – Hello returns with Season 3 on popular demand

    Popular web series – Hello returns with Season 3 on popular demand

    MUMBAI: Rejoice hoichoi fans! One of their top Original shows – Hello, starring eminent actors Raima Sen, Priyanka Sarkar and Joy Sengupta in lead roles will be returning with its 3rd season sooner than fans expected.

    The first season of Hello started streaming in September 2017, and it was hoichoi’s first Original content to start streaming on the app and website. After continuous requests from fans for the next season, hoichoi lavishly announced on their first birthday on 20th September 2018 that they will be renewing the Hello for a 2nd season, which will start streaming around end of December. 

    With tons of anticipation and presumption, fans waited eagerly to see how season 2 will progress. Judging from the immense positive response which poured in, hoichoi can humbly retort that they were not disappointed. However, the audience worried that they would again have to wait for another year to be treated to this drama-thriller. hoichoi decided to break all shackles and proclaim their return with the season 3 of Hello as soon as Puja 2019! 

    Co-Founder of hoichoi & SVF, Mahendra Soni stated “As storytellers, creators and distributors of the best of Bengali entertainment content, our primary mission of hoichoi is to provide quality content. Hello is one of our best Originals which is also an audience favourite. Even though we wish to experiment and want to churn out new kind of shows and films for the customers to consume, the continuation of a classic-drama story which resonated to them, has to be replenished.” 

  • Q brings eccentricity and oddity to hoichoi with Taranath Tantrik

    Q brings eccentricity and oddity to hoichoi with Taranath Tantrik

    MUMBAI: It’s time to relive the legend through the eyes of a cult director – Q – who is famous for his aesthetically treated content. hoichoi is bringing Q’s take on the famous character created by legendary Bengali author, Bibhutibhushon Bandopadhyay, Taranath Tantrik on screen as a web series. 

    The series is based on various short stories written by Bibhutibhushon Bandopadhyay and his son, Taradas Bandopadhyay. Bibhutibhushon was a renowned scholar, a civil servant, a nature lover and a prolific writer. Despite being a rationalist, he was deeply interested by the pagan practices. Having spent much of his life in such spaces where the old practices were still active, he has written extensively about the paranormal in everyday life. He wrote only two short stories about the character. Much of Taranath’s life is displayed prominently through these two stories. The writer himself always tells the stories. He is a regular visitor at Taranath’s old house. Sometimes with a friend, sometimes alone. Every time, Taranath tells a story. After Bibhutibhushon’s death, his son began writing more stories about Taranath Tantrik. These fascinating stories make for the narrative of the series. 

    Based in turn of the century Bengal, Taranath Tantrik (played by Indian American film and theatre actor, Jayant Kripalani) is a collection of fascinating stories providing an insight into the period narrated by a renowned tantric. These are stories of dark arts, mystery and magic. The stories all begin with a young writer, and his friend Kishori buying a packet of Passing Show cigarettes visiting Taranath. In lieu of the gift of cigarettes, Taranath, who lives with his pretty but strange daughter, Chari, will tell them a story from his rich repertoire. He has had an eventful life as an itinerant student and practitioner of Tantra. The writer and friend, being rationalists, have doubts about the authenticity of the stories. However, Taranath is a master storyteller, and takes them on a whirlwind trip of insane adventure every time. All episodes of Taranath Tantrik are streaming now. 

  • Crime, Camera, Action like never before…

    Crime, Camera, Action like never before…

    MUMBAI: Dhanbad Blues – hoichoi's latest Original revealed its poster on 5th December which had veteran actor, Rajatava Dutta (who plays a failed filmmaker) along with Dev D starrer, Dibyendu Bhattacharya (who plays a strict mafia-man) and Slumdog Millionaire actor, Imran Hasnee (who plays a corrupt but pretending to be clean political leader). Today, in front of media, the much-awaited Trailer was launched at a press conference in the presence of cast Rajatava Dutta, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Solanki, Rupanjana Maitra and director, Sourav Chakraborty along with producer & popular TV sensation, Madhumita Chakraborty. 

    Experience the rustic adventure of a filmmaker, mafia and political leader here: bit.ly/DhanbadBluesTrailer 

    Dhanbad Blues, streaming from 15th December, is the story of a film director by the name of Mrinal Sen, around 40 years of age and residing in North Kolkata, along with a dozen of other tenants. He shares a tremendous passion for filmmaking but is persistently hounded by bad luck. What keeps Mrinal from falling apart completely in face of such adversity is his dream of making his mark in cinema.  

    During such a bleak time, the phone rings one day. A voice asks him, “Do you wish to make a film for me?” Mrinal refuses at first. He is too depressed to make films anymore. On the caller’s persistence, Mrinal replies, “Yes, but only if you pay me twenty lakhs,” thinking this demand will shake the caller off. But to his utter surprise, the caller agrees. A hefty advance soon finds its way to his bank account. Slightly incredulous at the unexpected stroke of good luck and bolstered by his young assistant’s urging to explore the opportunity, the director travels to Jharkhand to meet his unknown benefactor and finds himself in the colliery region, ruled by the local mafia. The film is announced, and the offer is made. To the visitors’ utter surprise and disgust, it is revealed to be a pornographic film! Completely aghast at the proposal, the director wants to walk away, but is told that there’s no going back now. He tries to escape but is caught. He tries to fight with the producer’s sidekicks but is overwhelmed by them. He is given 10 days’ time to complete the film or face dire consequences.

  • Hoichoi to launch ‘Hello’ S2

    Hoichoi to launch ‘Hello’ S2

    MUMBAI: Hoichoi began its journey with its first original web series titled – Hello and became an instant hit with audience giving raving reviews. Thus, began the string of numerous requests flowing in for season 2 which will start from December, directed by Soumik Chattopadhyay.

    Hoichoi on its first anniversary this year announced 30 original shows and 12 original films for 2018-2019 which included the most-anticipated season 2 of all shows – Hello.

    The official trailer starts off from where the first season ended, Anonyo (Joy Sengupta) is at the doorstep of his girlfriend Nina (Priyanka Sarkar), ramming hard on the door and demanding her to let his wife Nandita (Raima Sen) out. Once the door opens, the drama begins with judgements flooding round and about as he accuses both of having a lesbian relationship behind his back.

    The official teaser of Hello, which was released a week earlier, was trending No. 1 on YouTube for 72 hours straight.

  • Airtel partners Bengali OTT platform Hoichoi

    Airtel partners Bengali OTT platform Hoichoi

    MUMBAI: Hoichoi, the over-the-top platform exclusively for Bengali content, has entered into a partnership with leading telco player Bharti Airtel. The former’s exclusive content will be available now on the Airtel TV app following the partnership.

    Hoichoi’s library includes original shows as well as chartbuster movies. After completing one year since its launch, the company recently announced 30 original shows and 12 original films for the next one year. This entire originals catalogue will also come to Airtel TV.

    “It gives us immense pleasure to announce this partnership with Bharti Airtel to offer complete digital entertainment experience to their customers. This will help us in extending our content distribution network through Airtel TV’s fast-growing user base,” Hoichoi co-founder Vishnu Mohta said.

    Moreover, some of their original shows like Hello, Byomkesh, Dupur Thakurpo, Cartoon, Mismatch and Charitraheen are dubbed in Hindi and Tamil to reach out to a wider audience base. As the platform claims, two leading shows Hello and Byomkesh are also performing extremely well on the Airtel TV app.

    “We are delighted to bring Hoichoi’s quality content to Airtel TV that will offer our Bengali users access to their favourite digital content in their local language, with a simple click of a button. With consumption of regional content going up significantly, we will continue to focus on adding diverse entertainment content to our kitty as we work towards building a world-class digital content ecosystem,”  Bharti Airtel West Bengal and Orissa CEO Sameer Anjaria commented on the partnership.

  • hoichoi among Top 10 Grossing Entertainment Apps on iOS

    hoichoi among Top 10 Grossing Entertainment Apps on iOS

    MUMBAI: hoichoi, the world’s largest digital Bengali content platform has time and again aimed to redefine India’s OTT space for regional languages. Recently, hoichoi completed a year on 20th September and revealed many exciting announcements, which since have had their audience ecstatic about what’s in store. Within a year of its launch, hoichoi has streamed over 240 million minutes of content. 

    With many milestones are being touched, hoichoi in the month of November has secured its place among the top 10 grossing entertainment apps on the iOS platform, in India. Audience have subscribed to the app after downloading it, through the iTunes payment ecosystem. 

    hoichoi Co-Founder, Vishnu Mohta exclaimed, “hoichoi was launched with a mission of reaching out to the 250+ million Bengali’s residing worldwide. These new developments are highly encouraging that a regional app whose only barrier is that its language specific, is among the top 10 where Netflix, Sony Liv and all other National apps are included.” 

  • hoichoi’s new hyped web series ‘Charitraheen’ is streaming now

    hoichoi’s new hyped web series ‘Charitraheen’ is streaming now

    Kolkata, 29th September, 2018 – hoichoi, recently on their first birthday celebration, announced 30 new Original web series as a promise to their audience for the next year. Fulfilling their promise, they already have the first of the lot ready to stream from 29th September with initially 4 episodes out of 10 – Charitraheen. The name “Charitraheen” (literal translation being “Characterless”) has an intrigue of its own. hoichoi never backs away from taking challenges of presenting Original content which will have tongues wagging and this web series is a perfect example of that.
    Inspired by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel of the same name, Debaloy Bhattacharya’s Charitraheen is a take on immorality and infidelity. Set in the present time, the characters are portrayed to be characterless. As we keep guessing and judging, this series aim to take the viewers to a plane beyond all judgement.
    The rest of the episodes will be streaming from 6th October and 13th October respectively, divided into 3 and 3 episodes.
    From the Official Trailer we see the dark tale of these few lost souls in a maze of love, lust, desire and betrayal are destined to be doomed. The journey traces these men and women as they try to come out clean. It is to see who finally gets nailed as ‘Charitraheen’ and what happens to the rest. It is an effort to categorise these characters in today’s light, to find them around us and to see ourselves in them. Down with morality and social conventions, long live suffering!
    Watch the trailer here: bit.ly/CharitraheenWebSeriesTrailer

    The trailer of this dark erotic series has created a massive buzz online and offline. Charitraheen’s first song “Katora Radhika” has also gained immense popularity and they plan to release two more sensual songs very soon.
    The story revolves around the couple Kiran/KIranmoyee (Naina Ganguly) and Harius/Haran (Gourab Chatterjee) and their complicated relationships with Satty/Satish (Saurav Das), Sabitri (Saayoni Ghosh) and others, who get involved in this quest for love that goes too far.

  • Content catalogue, brand awareness major achievements of Hoichoi: Vishnu Mohta

    Content catalogue, brand awareness major achievements of Hoichoi: Vishnu Mohta

    MUMBAI: The opportunities for OTT players to flourish in the regional market may be huge. But challenges still keep players out. In the Bengali field, we have SVF-backed Hoichoi, nearing its one year anniversary.
    At the new juncture, it is strengthening its presence in other potential markets with enough Bengali speaking population. Hoichoi(http://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/over-the-top-services/hoichoi-to-double-original-content-to-100-hours-this-year-180521) co-founder Vishnu Mohta sees its content catalogue and brand awareness as the biggest achievements in the first year.
    Bangladesh and the UAE are two markets Hoichoi is looking at for international expansion due to the Bengali speaking crowd as well as diaspora. The apps have been present there for a while but awareness is being done now.
    Mohta thinks it has not done enough local activity, local marketing and personalisation to enable people to know about the platform. To get the pulse of the market he mentions the importance of proper local teams. “We have got an office in Bangladesh and already recruited a few people over there. We plan to do the same thing in the Middle East. So a combination of our own team, the right set of partners will help Hoichoi to reach as many people as possible in that local market,” he said.
    The head of SVF’s new media section also mentions the need for on-ground activation, specific targeting, and influencer marketing in local markets. The two new markets demand different strategies. For Bangladesh, he thinks producing local content is a smart move, while for UAE they plan to work more on marketing, distribution. In UAE they want to be more precise, have local press releases, take help from biggest telcos for larger data and communication network.

    For Bangladeshi market, it has already announced Dhaka Metro, a show directed by renowned Amitabh Reza Chaudhuri. Though Mohta did not reveal too much, he indicated that it might come up with more such shows. Accepting the fact that Bengals from the two sides of the border have different taste in content, he says the uniformity in language will let the problem not be critical.
    In the one year of launch, Mohta realised the difference in Hoichoi not being available in Bengali. The lack of pay per view option was another issue. For a platform backed by SVF, having an option to watch movies on a-la-carte basis could bring huge money.
    Now Hoichoi wants to take its content to other language speakers through dubbed versions. Though the plan seems very optimistic, it’s still in the ideation stage. Dubbed versions could be available on platforms like Airtel TV. After testing the water with a selected number of people, it will take it to a larger level.
    Byomkesh, Dupur Thakurpo, Japani Toy, 6 and Holy Faak have emerged as the most popular shows in the last year which are returning for season two. Among the 30 originals, most of them will be released for binge watching while few, based on the nature of the show, will be launched in two-three episodes together.

    Last year, Hoichoi(http://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/over-the-top-services/bengali-ott-players-prioritise-market-growth-over-competition-180705) created a buzz in the market with #Hoyejak campaign during Durga Puja. On 1 October, the platform is set to launch another campaign on the same lines to reap benefits from the festive season of Durgapuja again. The platform has a remarkable trend to create witty hashtag campaigns which go viral easily. “We are called Hoichoi(non-stop excitement) , if we don’t get Hoichoi, we are doing injustice,” Mohta says in a light mood giving credit to the in house social media team for the campaign.
    While SVF’s magnitude in terms of financial profit is unquestionable, the young digital arm of it has a long way to go break even. Mohta says it brings a new energy to the parent company.
    “SVF, the leader in this business, has been in the market for 22 years. We are still very young. It infuses that energy and newness to the overall ecosystem allowing us to constantly innovate and renew our content strategy. A film might release every month and Hoichoi has to be updated every day, every week. So that vibe transcends to SVF as a team and keeps the DNA very healthy today,” he commented.

  • Hoichoi to introduce pay-per-view, offline payment method

    Hoichoi to introduce pay-per-view, offline payment method

    MUMBAI: SVF, the big name in Bengali entertainment industry, last year launched its Bengali OTT platform Hoichoi riding the wave of digital growth.  In the second season of its journey, it is expanding its footprint into Bangladesh and UAE market. Though dependent on the SVOD model since birth, it will now introduce pay per view model as well. Moreover, in a first of its kind move in the industry, it has launched Hoichoi Top Up card which will be available in nearest retailers or upcoming Hoichoi kiosks. Given the preference for cash payment, this is an offline payment method.

    Along with a new payment method and business plans, it has the ambition to add more than 100 hours of original content in the upcoming year. The new content pipeline includes 30 original shows, some of which are second seasons of popular web series already aired on the platform. While SVF, the parent company has a rich history in the Bengali film industry, the digital venture aims to add 12 original films.

    Hoichoi co-founder Vishnu Mohta mentioned the high user engagement of the app though kept mum on subscriber numbers. He claims the average time spent in-app is one hour per day. It is not certain how the company has been able to get its return but the awareness of Hoichoi has been created.

    Like other OTT platforms, Hoichoi is also seeing traffic from tier-II and III cities. In addition to that, almost 40 per cent of the audience comes from non-urban areas and Hoichoi director and co-founder Mahendra Soni mentions this as the rationale behind introducing offline payment method.

    While Bengali industry makes many good films, the natives living outside Bengal don’t get the chance to watch them in theatres often. The plan of digital premiere is aimed to bridge this gap. “In yet another first in the Bengali entertainment space, we are now introducing the ‘pay per view’ feature as part of the TVoD model. We will be releasing movies on Hoichoi very soon after their theatrical release and the viewers will have the option to pay for the content on an a-la-carte basis,” Hoichoi director and co-founder Shrikant Mohta said.

    A partnership with Airtel TV in India, Robi in Bangladesh and Etisalat and du in UAE have also been struck.

    There is also a plan for a Bengali app and website interface making it more comfortable for users. Simultaneously, Hoichoi wants to dub the shows into other languages like Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. To position it more strongly as a brand, the platform also start merchandising.