iWorld
ZEE5 announces new original ‘Kya Meri Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai’
Mumbai: Taking the incident where ‘Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai’ written on a currency note went viral across the country to the next level, ZEE5 has announced its next original film “Kya Meri Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai”, which will premiere on the platform very soon. The film is presented by Dr Jayantilal Gada of Pen Studios.
Produced by Dhaval and Aksshay Gada and directed by Ssaurabh Tyagi, the film marks the Bollywood debut of TV actor Surbhi Jyoti opposite Jassie Gill. It also stars Vijay Raaz, Bijendra Kala, Atul Shrivastava, and the National Award-winning late actress Surekha Sikri in pivotal roles. The film has a couple of soundtracks which will be available on ‘Saregama’.
Set in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, the romantic comedy follows a young man named Sintoo who falls in love with Sonam Gupta, the town’s heartbeat and a girl way out of his league. The story unfolds when Sonam reciprocates his feelings, leaving Sintoo all the more confused. What happens after is a series of comedy of errors where a line written on a note goes viral and starts a chain of events, the platform shared in a statement.
ZEE5 India, chief business officer, Manish Kalra said, “There is a story waiting to be told in every nook and corner and we are glad to be picking on these stories and presenting it to a larger audience. ‘Kya Meri Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai’ is based on a true incident but it picks up from there and completes the narrative. We are sure that people are curious to know why something written on a currency note was trending and we thought it would be interesting to tell a fictionalised story based on this viral incident. This movie is romantic, funny, and witty, and it has a message. It is a complete package, and we are excited for the premiere.”
Pen Studios, chairman and MD, Dr Jayantilal Gada added, “The film’s script is very inspiring and interesting. Taking a viral incident that caught the nation’s attention and making a content-driven contemporary story out of it was something that caught our attention in turn. We at Pen Studios focus on strong content and this film has it.”
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
