ITV

Tag: Streaming service

  • Zee5 rolls out in the US, announces Canada as another focus market

    KOLKATA: Zee5, owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) has forayed into the US market on Tuesday eyeing over five million South Asia diaspora audiences. The service has been priced at $6.99 per month, and at $84 per year. The streaming platform also announced a special discount for the student community, with the monthly pack priced at $4.99 instead of $6.99.

    Zee5 has clinched a few key partnerships as well. It has joined hands with the North American Association of Indian Students to strike a chord with the young audience. It will also be partnering with MassMutual in the US to reach the latter’s extensive South Asian customer database.

    The launch was announced by Zee5 Global chief business officer Archana Anand along with actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas as the latter attended the event as a special guest. Along with unveiling the platform’s upcoming content slate, the duo revealed the global brand campaign – ‘Welcome to South Asia: Stories from our world.”

    Zee Entertainment Digital Businesses & Platforms president Amit Goenka said: “We’ve had a long association of over two decades with this market, bringing our viewers here the best of Indian entertainment through our channels. With Zee5, we now look to offer both these audiences and the younger demographic access to a much wider choice of premium content with our Originals, digital premieres, and more, on any screen of their choice and with a completely personalized viewing experience.”

    In the coming months, Zee5 will release a number of movies, new shows, returning seasons of popular shows. RRR from filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, Sunil Grover starrer Sunflower, Rangbaaz 3, Oka Chinna Family, returning seasons of recently acquired TVF Originals Pitchers, Tripling. Moreover, the platform has lined up Pakistani shows like Churails, Ek Jhooti Love Story, and Dhoop ki Deewar.

    Zee5 Global’s Archana Anand said: “Bringing Zee5 into the U.S. is so much more than just providing the South Asian diaspora here with a mega entertainment platform through which they can access a vast library of stories. It is a powerful bridge between them, their culture, and their languages.”

    This content is available in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi, as well as Malay, Thai, Bahasa, Arabic, Urdu, and Bangla (Bangladeshi) with key titles dubbed and/or subtitled in English.

    Terming Canada as another focus market, Zee5 also emphasised that it is available for Canadian audiences and that it will also be launching its campaign in Canada, thereby kicking off its marketing in the country. Zee5 sees much potential in the country, given that it has a tremendous amount of content across languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu, perfect for key diaspora audiences within the Canadian landscape.

  • Amazon Prime Video launches #TheFamilyManJobHunt

    Amazon Prime Video launches #TheFamilyManJobHunt

    KOLKATA: As we inch closer to the release of the new season of the eagerly awaited Amazon original series – The Family Man, Amazon Prime Video has launched an innovative engagement initiative with India Inc. and startups to stir-up the excitement quotient for the series.

    Titled #TheFamilyManJobHunt, this unique influencer campaign follows Srikant Tiwari’s (Manoj Bajpayee’s character in the series) quest for a new job, with him being interviewed by business stalwarts like Ritesh Agarwal, founder & chief executive officer of OYO Hotels & Homes, Manu Kumar Jain, vice president of Xiaomi, Kabeer Biswas, chief executive officer & co-founder of Dunzo and Ankur Warikoo, co-founder of Nearbuy. The engagement initiative picks up from last season’s story-arc where Srikant faces an uphill task of finding a decent desk job for himself, having just quit TASC (a fictitious arm of the Indian intelligence agency) to spend time with his family.

    Kick-starting the digital campaign, lead actor Manoj Bajpayee took to his social media to share that Srikant Tiwari has finally chosen to be an ideal Family Man and is on the lookout for a corporate job. His post triggered a round of fun and quirky conversations among fans, celebrities and social media influencers who replied to his tweets with bizarre job recommendations. Industry leaders like Ankur Warikoo (Nearbuy), Kabeer Biswas (Dunzo), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO) and Manu Kumar Jain (Xiaomi) are seen joining in the fun banter as well, proposing to interview Srikant. What follows are a series of interesting virtual interviews with these renowned business leaders that has created quite the stir in the corporate world and even amongst internet users.

    Nearbuy co-founder Ankur Warikoo said, “Srikant (Manoj Bajpayee’s character in the show) is a super talented guy. (I) would have loved for him to be part of Nearbuy. Not sure why the reference checks aspect of his interview made him get all weird. Love such talent, sad he could not join us!”

    Dunzo CEO & co-founder Kabeer Biswas said, “Working with The Family Man team has been a thrilling experience much like the show itself.  It was a natural extension for Dunzo – through the pandemic, our team has worked to keep Indian citizens safe. No mean-feat, if you think about it! Just like Srikant, we have had to balance multiple priorities. As we continue to deliver essentials across the country, we’re sure that the series will deliver on the intrigue and entertainment it did with the first season. And Srikant, the job offer is always open!” 

    Xiaomi vice president Manu Kumar Jain added, “It was an absolute delight to collaborate with the team of Amazon Prime Video for the upcoming season of The Family Man. It was great to have Srikant interview with us. He promises to be a high performing individual both on reel and in real life much like Mi TV, India’s no. 1 smart TV brand. We are confident that with the passion he has, the new season of The Family Man will continue to be one of the most popular shows amongst the audiences.”

    Amazon Prime Video India, marketing director Sushant Sreeram said, “As India’s much loved video streaming service, we have had the opportunity to build immersive worlds for our viewers with blockbuster series like The Family Man. A big part of building that on-going relationship with our viewers is to bring elements from reel life to real life and vice-versa. Srikant Tiwari (being) on a job-hunt is just that – a much loved character doing something many of us have experienced in real life. We had a ball working with leaders of some of the most exciting startups in the country right now, putting together this fun job-hunt campaign for our customers. Who is going to hire the not-so-minimum guy? Tune in to Amazon Prime Video on the 4th of June to find out!”

  • Discovery+ bolsters content portfolio, changes pricing

    Discovery+ bolsters content portfolio, changes pricing

    KOLKATA: Discovery+ on Wednesday announced its largest content portfolio expansion to make it the go-to app for viewing families. Starting from June, over 100 new shows for Kids and library content from A+E Networks (including from History TV18) will be added to its content slate.

    The platform has also changed its pricing. The old rate of Rs 299 will be available only till 8 June 2021, post which subscription will be priced at Rs 399.

    With the largest addition to its content library across sub-genres like reality, sports, kids, learning, food, travel, history et al since its inception, discovery+ will be a one stop destination for wholesome a family viewing experience across seven languages, to include English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali, the company stated.

    Covering shows from a wide array of genres, audiences across different age groups and interests will now have access to diverse exciting, informative and entertaining content. From fresh weekly episodes of key acquisitions like Hell’s Kitchen featuring  Gordon Ramsay, the chef with a cult following, live races from thrilling 2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship, to highly appreciated motoring television series, Top Gear America hosted by Dax Shepard, Rob Corddry, and Jethro Bovingdon.      

    Be it walking with migrating elephants in Walking with Elephants ft. Levison Wood, or navigating love under overbearing mothers’ eyes in I Love A Mama’s Boy, along with new episodes of the most loved franchise Undercover Billionaire: Comeback City, the discovery+ audience is assured of entertainment in more ways than one.

    The plaform will be expanding its library even further with the acquisition of global and local titles from the A+E Networks’ (including from History TV18) library. From top-rated reality TV series like Pawn Stars based on a family-owned pawn shop to America’s favourite treasure hunters, Storage Wars to OMG! Yeh Mera India, the longest-running and most successful History TV18 franchise hosted by Krushna Abhishek and Kumbh: Among The Seekers based on a famous religious festival amongst other enthralling titles, users will have world-class content available at their fingertips. 

    Adding to the delight, a special curated kids content slate including exciting and appealing new shows like Mr. Bean, Little Singham, Kids Baking Championship, My Little Pony, Hanuman, Mister Maker among other fun titles are to be introduced. Children will be able to immerse into the world of fantasy and never-ending adventure while increasing their knowledge through informative titles like How Do Animals Do That, MythBusters Jr, to name a few.

    Expanding its local original production in 2021, with standout titles including Star vs. Food, Secrets of Sinauli: Discovery of the Century, Mission Frontline, Ladakh Warriors and Vande Bharat Flight IX 1344: Hope To Survival, the app has become home, to strong locally differentiated content in the real-life entertainment and learning space. 

    Discovery Inc South Asia managing director Megha Tata said: “We at discovery+, have always strived to provide world-class infotainment content to our users. Our partnership with A&E is a testament of how innovation for consumers remains core to discovery+ and reinforces our commitment to our audience by bringing to them content they like consuming under one platform. While we have our broad and engrossing portfolio for adults from varied genres, with the addition of kids we now have more content catering to the entire family. She also added, “We are confident that these additions will further strengthen our family, facts & fun premises that bring us close to our aspiration of being an aggregate platform catering to every member of the family.”

  • Eros Now has 39.9mn paying global subscribers

    Eros Now has 39.9mn paying global subscribers

    KOLKATA: Eros Now has reported a 39.9 million paid subscribers and a total 224 million registered users worldwide as on 31 March, 2021. This represents 10.6 million net new paid subscriber added since 31 March, 2020, accounting for an annual growth rate of 36.2 per cent. 

    Eros Now plans to concentrate its reporting and guidance on premium paid subscribers, going forward, as the platform believes it is a more meaningful indicator of the platform’s performance and economic vitality, it has said in a statement.

    As previously communicated, Eros Now has developed and grown through symbiotic partnerships with mobile telecom operators and other third-party distribution partners around the world. The Company believes these partnerships were fundamental to the business in its early stages of development because they allowed Eros Now to rapidly increase scale and cast a wide net to reach as many consumers as possible in a capital efficient manner.

    While these partnerships will continue to play an important role going forward, Eros Now expects to pivot its distribution model to focus primarily on direct-to-consumer relationships while continuing to strengthen and expand select key distribution partnerships.

    The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a challenging crisis globally with significant business impact. Eros Now has seen growth in subscribers and consumption amidst the pandemic lockdowns, although there was a correction in the final months of calendar 2020 following the early lockdown surge. Overall engagement statistics on the Eros Now platform have increased in 2021 to date. For some indices, such as watch hours, engagement levels are at approximately twice the level as compared to “pre-lockdown”.

    Subscribers: Going forward, Eros Now will concentrate on reporting the number of Premium Paid subscribers. A Premium Paid subscriber is defined as a consumer who subscribes to the Eros Now product for at least one month (30 days), either directly or indirectly through a bundled package with a distribution partner. As of 31 March, 2021, Eros Now had 19.0 million Premium Paid subscribers. The other 20.9 million paid subscribers, who purchase content a la carte or with sachet pricing (including single downloads or subscriptions lasting a day or a week), are defined as Base Paid subscribers.

    Average Revenue per User (ARPU):  Eros Now uses a “geo-sensitive” pricing model for its product in each market. Pricing is guided by the expectation that Eros Now is meant to be a high-quality and affordable mass-market entertainment service that allows people to consume content how and when they choose. Many users start their journey on Eros Now with short-form content or a la carte transactions for specific content, and then move on to more traditional subscription plans. The depth and availability of mass-market content is a tool to introduce consumers to the Eros Now product. As consumer engagement and consumption increases, Eros Now expects to focus on migrating these subscribers onto higher ARPU plans of longer duration. Consistent with Eros Now’s strategy to concentrate on direct-to-consumer relationships, the ARPU metric for Premium Paid subscribers will be an important indicator of the company’s progress. In fiscal 2021, the annual ARPU (net to Eros Now after deducting commissions, partnership fees, etc.) of Premium Paid subscribers was as follows:

    All Premium Paid Subscribers – Global:  $0.52

    ·       Premium Paid Subscribers – India: $0.30

    ·       Premium Paid Subscribers – International:  $10.01

    Watch Hours:  A primary metric for video streaming businesses is watch hours, which represents the total viewing time spent by all consumers on an aggregate basis. Total watch hours for Eros Now in fiscal 2021 was 28.1 million hours. Watch hours relating to the top 25 titles on Eros Now was 10.3 million hours.  This means that 63 per cent of total watch hours was generated by catalogue or non-tentpole films, including regional language movie titles, which is a testament to the salience and affinity of catalogue content with Eros Now subscribers.

    Original content and series remain a very important driver and differentiator for subscriber growth. The Eros Now original series Flesh, which premiered on Eros Now in August 2020, was the biggest Eros Now original series as measured by paid subscriber increases, unique streams and watch hours. The total watch hours related to original Eros Now series during fiscal 2021 was 2.6 million hours, which represents nine per cent of the total Eros Now watch hours. 

    Consumer Profiles:  Eros Now believes that analyzing consumption patterns from its subscribers and viewers around the world is an important factor in understanding the growth trends of the business. Below are selected datapoints of the global Eros Now consumer profile in fiscal 2021. Note that the datapoints are representative averages and there may be variances based on content launches, addition of new geographies and new subscriber additions to the platform.

    ·       Gender:  75 per cent male / 25 per cent female

    ·       Geography:  Two third of Eros Now viewers are from India and the rest are from outside of India (United States is the second largest market with 10 per cent contribution)

    ·       Age: 18-34 constitutes 80 per cent of the viewer base. The 25-34 age group demonstrated the largest growth during fiscal 2021.

    ·       Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India (medium-to-small sized cities) now represent 50 per cent of overall Indian viewers.

    The Indian OTT viewer has evolved throughout the pandemic period. Most of the OTT viewership growth in India is coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. In line with this, the majority of Eros Now viewers are in the younger demographic, less fluent in English and prefer to consume entertainment in Hindi or their native languages. Eros Now original series consumption is meaningful in India. The country accounted for 80% of watch hours for original series, of which 50% came from consumers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

    Screen Engagement:  A significant amount of Eros Now consumption is through smart TVs.  For example, 50 per cent of watch hours for Metro Park season 2, which debuted in January 2021, were on smart TVs versus a single digit percentage of watch hours at the close of fiscal 2020.

    Eros Now is focused on delivering premium digital entertainment to consumers across the world. Eros Now expects to see a modest reduction in Premium Paid subscribers in the short term due to the pivot in strategy towards direct-to-consumer. To maximize reach, Eros Now currently has global collaborations and partnerships with market-leading telecommunications operators, OEMs and digital distribution entities such as Amazon, Apple, Virgin Media and Roku, which allow Eros Now to be available to global audiences.

     Eros Now currently has over 120 distribution partners and growing, with a meaningful number of partners signed up during the past twelve months alone. In addition, Eros Now has a unique and strategic relationship with Microsoft to further develop and create backend video technology on Azure. This collaboration will help Eros Now develop a new intuitive online video platform to ensure seamless delivery of content across varied consumer cohorts.

    By 31 December 2021, Eros Now is targeting an annual Premium Paid subscriber ARPU globally in the range of $1.20 to $1.30. The company expects the ARPU growth will be driven by the pivot in strategy to focus more on direct-to-consumer relationships and by leveraging the bundling opportunities with distribution partners. Eros Now believes these factors will help grow ARPU and reduce churn.

    The Eros Now content strategy will focus on new original Hindi language series, as well as augmenting the portfolio of regional language series to maintain and grow its leadership position in tier 2 and tier 3 regions of India. As previously announced in December 2020, Eros Now is planning to release a total of 46 original series and movies premieres across 8 Indian languages during fiscal 2021. To date Eros Now has released 25 titles with the rest to follow during fiscal 2021. In addition, Eros Now plans to introduce more genres of content.

  • We have taken a relook at our entire strategy at Zee5: Punit Goenka

    We have taken a relook at our entire strategy at Zee5: Punit Goenka

    KOLKATA: The over-the-top (OTT) market is ripe for growth in India, the segment which has emerged as one of the most obvious winners in the pandemic time. Most OTT platforms in India have multiplied their user base over the last year. Zee5 was no exception as it also drew more viewers to its platform, but it may take some time before the paid subscription base is reflected in its overall revenue.

    Zee5’s global monthly active users (MAU) and daily active users (DAU) have gone up to 72.6 million, 6.1 million respectively in q4 from 65.9 million, 5.4 million in the q3. Despite the growth, its revenue has declined to Rs 107.5 crore in the quarter from Rs 117.8 crore. However, EBITDA loss has come down to Rs 162.5 core from Rs 175.7 crore in q3.

    The fall in revenue is on account of advertising, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZeeL) MD & CEO Punit Goenka said in a conference call post the earnings. But that is cyclical in nature, Goenka noted. Along with that, pending telco deal renewal is another reason for the drop in revenue. Moreover, the platform saw a bump up in revenue in the previous quarter because of the festive season, ZeeL investor relations, corporate strategy head Bijal Shah added.

    However, Zee5 may see a better result in Q1 of FY22 as the blockbuster Radhe has premiered on the platform and management seems confident about the movie’s performance. “Radhe has done what we expected it to do for us,” Goenka highlighted saying the film has been quite successful for the platform. However, he did not delve into deeper numbers as it has been only a week since the release of the movie. The company hopes Zee5 revenues to move up in Q1 on the back of the film along with other reasons.

    Predominantly, the platform’s MAUs and DAUs are coming from its own organic growth as telco partnerships are only on the subscription side. On the AVoD side, 90 per cent of users are coming from India as there are few international markets of Zee5 with an advertising model. As the platform plans to launch Zee5 in the UK, US, Europe market, those markets will only have a subscription-led model.

    “We are seeing people moving to SVOD service (in India). It is slow but it is certainly heartening to see people who come to the funnel of catch up TV and then move to paid services,” Goenka added.

    Zee5 last year took several new innovations like adding education content, gamification of shows, and launching short video segments. Goenka was asked on the call why Zee5 didn’t continue its efforts in those segments. “We never got into e-learning, gamification itself. These initiatives were partner driven,” he responded.

    “Certainly, a lot of our content may not have succeeded or was not for the right audience base that we have seen but we have taken a relook at our entire strategy at Zee5. We planned to reduce the pricing to Rs 499 per year in line with what is happening in the market. That is one value proposition,” Goenka quipped.

    “Other value proposition is going to be a focus on good quality content in the form of films as well as originals across multiple languages that we are going to focus on going forward,” he stated further.  Goenka also remarked that Zee5 is going to focus on the tech platform significantly for it to be an app that can delight consumers.

  • Hoichoi’s first independent property Tangra Blues debuts on the platform

    Hoichoi’s first independent property Tangra Blues debuts on the platform

    KOLKATA: Bengali OTT platform Hoichoi’s first independent property, Tangra Blues, premiered on the platform on Saturday a month after its theatrical release while simultaneously being available in multiplexes.

    Directed by National Award-winning director Supriyo Sen, along with National Award-winning cinematographer Ranjan Palit, and music director Nabarun Ghosh, the film is an underdog story of a band that refuses to die and rewrite its destiny through music. 

    Ahead of its World Premiere on Hoichoi, Tangra Blues had opened to an overwhelming response and rave reviews in theatres a month back on 15 April. The film is inspired by the lives and struggles of Sanjay Mandol & group, Kolkata’s most popular waste band group, who went on to become a runner-up in a popular talent reality show in the country.

    The film stars renowned actors Parambrata Chatterjee and Madhumita along with Saimul Alam, Oishani Dey, and Atmadeep Ghosh among others.

    Hoichoi revenue & strategy VP Soumya Mukherjee said, “With our huge bank of World Premiere movies and Original Shows, we are prepared to provide entertainment to our user base even at a time like this. Tangra Blues being our first independent property, we are excited for our users across the globe to enjoy it from the safety and comfort of their homes. At Hoichoi, we endeavour to bring great content and latest releases on our service for our users to experience.”

  • Netflix rescues users from streaming indecisiveness with ‘Play Something’

    Netflix rescues users from streaming indecisiveness with ‘Play Something’

    KOLKATA: ‘What to watch now?’ – there is probably no Netflix user who has not thought of this. Now, the global streaming giant is ready to rescue viewers from the conflict with its new ‘Play Something’ feature.

    A Netflix user who presses the new ‘Play Something’ button will be shown a film or show based on his or her interest. If the user does not like the recommendation, they can move on with ‘Play Something Else’ to see a new set of options that include an unfinished series or film.

    “There are times when we just don’t want to make decisions. A Friday evening after a long work week. A fridge full of food but nothing jumps out. A family movie night where no one can agree. We’ve all been there. Sometimes you just want to open Netflix and dive right into a new story. That’s why we’ve created Play Something, an exciting new way to kick back and watch,” Netflix product innovation director Cameron Johnson said.

    Play Something can be found in multiple ways: underneath user profile name, the tenth row on your Netflix homepage, the navigation menu on the left of the screen. While the company is rolling out the feature globally, it is currently limited to TV based versions – that is, it is not available on mobile phones, laptops or tablet devices for now. Earlier this year, the streaming giant introduced a new feature that automatically downloads recommended content for users on their smartphones.

  • As regional content explodes, Hoichoi eyes 60-80% revenue growth in FY22

    As regional content explodes, Hoichoi eyes 60-80% revenue growth in FY22

    KOLKATA: In the last couple of years, Hoichoi has been in the limelight for its bold moves in the regional over-the-top (OTT) segment. The Bengali streaming service revealed its cumulative subscriber base had breezed past the 13 million-mark on the third anniversary of its launch. To boost its user base further, the platform has recently announced a stellar content line-up for 2021, with 18 fresh stories.

    This year’s line-up is a leap from what the platform did last year, especially from a story point of view, Hoichoi co-founder Vishnu Mohta said. The streamer had the opportunity to work with a number of renowned directors, filmmakers and a lot of other marquee talents, he highlighted. Hence, the platform has doubled down on content investment as compared to before.

    Talking heads are enthused about the regional space, as reports have indicated that the share of language content will increase to around 50 per cent of overall OTT consumption, up from 30 per cent in 2019. Hence, a wider library will drive more subscribers to Hoichoi as the Bengali OTT market is still largely unpenetrated by major OTT platforms in terms of original content.

    The Bengali streaming service has set its sights on aggressive direct subscriber acquisition this year. “This year we have changed our strategy a little bit. We are not trying to syndicate our content. We were on the biggest telco players; our content was available as syndicated content. Now we have decided that our content will not be available on syndication from this year, it will only be bundled with aggregators like Jio Fiber or other big ISPs. The acquisition has to be direct,” Mohta explained.

    The rationale behind the move is that ARPU is much higher through direct subscribers who pay around Rs 500 every year. According to Mohta, the platform has put together a good line-up to excite customers to pay for original content. Currently, revenue from direct subscriptions stands around 50 per cent for Hoichoi. With greater emphasis on direct acquisition, Mohta is hopeful Hoichoi’s revenue will go up at least 60-80 per cent in FY 22.

    Acclaimed actors like Rahul Bose, Anirban Bhattacharya, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Swastika Mukherjee, Sohini Sarkar, and award-winning filmmakers such as Srijit Mukherji, Kamaleswar Mukherjee, Anjan Dutt are some of the popular faces behind this new line-up. In addition to episodic series like Byomkesh and Eken Babu, films like Tangra Blues, Golondaj, Prem Tame will premiere on Hoichoi.

    Along with building up a diverse content portfolio, the OTT player has initiated a multi-dimensional promotional strategy as well. With a follower base of five-six million, the platform is leveraging its social media communities highly to promote new shows. To get more personal feedback, it has recently started calling every single customer to get their opinion on which show or film on the platform was to their liking, Mohta detailed.

    Additionally, Hoichoi has recently introduced a refer and earn scheme for subscribers, he shared. The person who refers will get one month extension on existing subscription and the other person who joins based on the referral gets a 20 per cent discount.

    Although digital payments growth has skyrocketed in India, there are still barriers to adoption of such services among certain sections. To overcome this obstacle, Hoichoi has started reaching out to different shops which sell mobile phones, accessories, telecom recharges to enable them to sell the platform’s subscriptions. This strategy, implemented in tier-3, tier-4 towns, allows people to subscribe to the platform through cash also.

  • Hoichoi gives a glimpse of its 2021 content slate

    Hoichoi gives a glimpse of its 2021 content slate

    KOLKATA: Bengali streaming giant Hoichoi today unveiled its content line-up for, 2021, which includes  18 powerful and irresistible stories. Apart from its impressive March line-up, the OTT also plans to add more shows and movies this year than it did in the past years.  

    Hoichoi has roped in top talents of the industry, such as Rahul Bose, Dev, Anirban Bhattacharya, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Srabanti, Soham, Swastika Mukherjee, Sohini Sarkar, Monami Ghosh, Saswata Chatterjee, Anirban Chakrabarti, Arjun Chakraborty, Anindita Bose, Tridha Choudhury debutants Soumya Mukherjee, Sweta Mishra, Susmita Chatterjee, Debasish Mondal. Along with Bangladesh sensations like Mosharraf Karim, Badhon, Shamol Mawla and more; creators Srijit Mukherji, Kamaleswar Mukherjee, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Anjan Dutt, Sahana Dutta, Mainak Bhaumik, Anirban Bhattacharya’s directorial debut will also join its vast library.

    In a statement, Hoichoi co-founder Vishnu Mohta said, “At Hoichoi, we aim to bring distinct stories for our diverse audiences with variant taste. Our upcoming line-up is a reflection of that idea; each one of which is a gripping story of human emotions, filled with suspense, comedy, love, drama, thrill and longing. Every season we try to reinvent ourselves, with content from the brightest and newest creators of the region. So, #NotunGolpoHoyejak?”

    The exciting line-up is as follows:

    1.     Maradonar Juto – Directed by Mainak Bhaumik, this romantic comedy with a fresh casting, filled with the spice of family drama talks about neighbouring families, residing in North Kolkata (Dutta family & Chowdhury family), who have a generational feud about a pair of shoes, which belongs to the great football legend, Maradona.  

    2.     Dujone – A thriller, not a love story, Dujone marks the digital debut of much-loved on-screen pair, Soham and Srabanti, which talks about a wife’s dilemma to decipher her husband’s true personality.

    3.     Mohomaya – Helmed by Sahana Dutta, Mohomaya is a unique tale of a boy, jilted by his traumatic past, involving his mother, essayed by National Award-Winning actress Ananya Chatterjee, at a tender age, finds affection he longed for all his life in his friend's mother, played by powerhouse actress Swastika Mukherjee. National Award-Winning director Kamaleswar Mukherjee marks his digital directorial debut with the series.

    4.     Mohanagar – The story revolves around three characters and a pair of police officers whose lives get connected due to an incident that changes them and their belief in the system. Mohanagar marks the hoichoi debut of Bangladesh superstar Mosharraf Karim.

    5.     Srikanto – A modern day take of the cult novel in & within the matrix of childhood simplicity, adolescent innocence to complex neo-liberal social & interpersonal predicament of human existence. Will star a young talent Rishav Basu, in the lead.

    6.     Mandaar – Created and directed by Anirban Bhattacharya, Mandaar will be the first among ‘hoichoi World Classics’ segment that will bring Shakespeare's literary classic, Macbeth, to screen, featuring Debashish Mondal, Sohini Sarkar and Anirban Bhattacharya himself in the lead.

    7.     Mouchaak – A dark comedy, which will mark the digital debut of television personality, Monami Ghosh, Mouchaak chronicles a series of funny unfortunate events surrounding a housewife under house arrest, a series of guests and a lottery ticket.  

    8.     Robindronath Ekhane Kawkhono Khete Aashenni – An adaptation from the popular Bangladesh novel of the same name by Mohammad Nazim Uddin, which will mark Srijit Mukherji’s first series on hoichoi starring the dynamic Rahul Bose as the detective who reaches a famed restaurant to uncover the truth behind its mysterious owner, Muskaan Zuberi, essayed by Bangladesh sensation, Azmari Haque Badhon.

    9.     Murder in the Hills – The suspicions death of a Bengali film star of the 90s unravels to expose the seedy underbelly of Darjeeling’s pasts. Written, directed and acted by Anjan Dutt, the series is well balanced with a slew of casts, such as Arjun Chakraborty, Anindita Bose, Rajdeep Gupta, Sandipta Sen, Sourav Chakraborty, Suprobhat Das amongst others.

    10.  Shei Je Holud Pakhi 2 – The much-awaited series returns with its second season which will culminate the popular musical-drama about Vaidehi’s death. Saswata Chatterjee and Tridha Choudhury are reprising their roles in this season.

    11.  Paap 2 – with Puja Banerjee & Rahul Banerjee as the lead, the mysteries of season 1 will unravel in season 2 with another set of deaths and unexpected deaths.

    12.  Eken Babu S5 – Anirban Chakrabarti will reprise the role of Eken Babu as the much-loved crime-thriller returns for its fifth season with a new mystery that unfolds itself.

    13.  Byomkesh S7 – Starring the very versatile Anirban Bhattacharya as Byomkesh, along with Suprobhat Das as Ajit, and Ridhima Ghosh as Satyabati, our popular detective will return with a new mystery based on Byomkesh Bakshi created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.  

    14.  Tangra Blues World Premiere – A story of a failed musician and a band on a verge of oblivion with Tangra – the most notorious slums in Kolkata as a backdrop, the film will see the fresh pairing of Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Madhumita for the first time.

    15.  Prem Tame World Premiere – It's a story of a revolution, within a young heart, inside a home, and in society. The film brings together the fresh casting of Soumya Mukherjee, Sweta Mishra and Susmita Chatterjee.

    16.  Kakababur Protyaborton World Premiere – Audience's beloved Kakababu, aka Raja Roychowdhury, essayed by Bengal’s industry himself – Prosenjit Chatterjee, returns for the third instalment of this popular franchise with his nephew, Shantu, this time traversing the dangerous terrains of Africa. This time, the film is based on Jongoler Moddhe Ek Hotel by Sunil Gangopadhyay.

    17.  Psycho World Premiere – Anirban Bhattacharya and Birsa Dasgupta return to team up for a thriller that is about a psychiatrist-turned-resident criminologist who teams up with the top-rank officials of law enforcement to hunt down a psychopath.

    18.  Golondaaj  World Premiere – A biographical sports drama directed by Dhrubo Banerjee, starring superstar Dev in the lead, is the story of a pioneer in Indian football, named Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari.

  • NCPCR asks Netflix to stop streaming Bombay Begums for inappropriate depiction of children

    NCPCR asks Netflix to stop streaming Bombay Begums for inappropriate depiction of children

    KOLKATA: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued a notice to OTT platform Netflix to stop streaming Bombay Begums. It has also asked the streamer to furnish a detailed action report within 24 hours, failing which it will be constrained to initiate appropriate legal action.

    According to the notice, the commission has received complaints from two Twitter handles regarding the Netflix original. The objections have been raised in regards to a scene where a 13-year-old girl is seen snorting cocaine at a party, as well as another plot point dealing with school girls sending nude selfies to members of the opposite sex.

    NCPCR stated that the series with this type of content will pollute young minds and may result in abuse and exploitation of children at the hands of perpetrators and offenders.

    The commission further mentioned that it does not allow representing, portraying, glorifying children in India in such manner on any platform including streaming services.

    "Netflix should take extra precaution while streaming any content in respect of the children or for the children and shall also refrain themselves from getting into such things," the commission said in the notice.

    Bombay Begums, written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, started streaming on 8 March which revolves around five women whose lives are interconnected.

    Lately, the content on OTT platforms have come under severe scrutiny. Netflix’s arch rival Amazon Prime Video issued an apology for its series Tandav in the wake of widespread furore over the depiction of Hindu deities. The government has also notified new rules to better monitor and regulate the content on new age entertainment platforms consisting of a three-tier redressal mechanism. Although the Centre has emphasised it is a “soft-touch regulation”, many experts have criticized the guidelines, saying they give the government overriding power to step in.