iWorld
70-80% of ALTBalaji traffic from telco tie-ups: Sunil Lulla
MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms recently posted Q1 result where the TV business revenue remained flat while the digital venture ALTBalaji showed impressive result by acquiring 2.1 million new paid users excluding Reliance Jio platform users. For OTT platforms in India, telco deals have become important and ALTBalaji is not an exception. Balaji Telefilms Ltd group CEO Sunil Lulla said in an earnings call that about 70-80 per cent of traffic comes from telcos while the ARPU from the sector stands around Rs 15 per month. The company started telco deals last November with Vodafone following up with Jio and Airtel.
“In terms of value it will be between 60 per cent and 70 per cent because the ARPU that we are getting through the non-telco, that is the direct downloads, is about Rs 25 a month and the ARPU we are getting from the telco business around Rs 15 a month,” Lulla commented. However, he denied revealing the churn rate on telcos.
Along with good subscription growth, ALTBalaji’s revenue also picked pace reaching Rs 5.8 crore in Q1. The revenue without the impact of IND-AS 115 stood at Rs 7.1 crore. Currently, the platform has 21 original shows excluding kids content and comedy clips. Though the initial focus of the platform has been on creating Hindi dramas, the platform will add a Bhojpuri show to its regional content mix. To increase its appeal to Tamil audience, a market which has potential, it felt the need to create a reasonable library in the language. But until reaching the target of 30 shows, the team is not going to fully focus on Tamil library.
“Right now Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam continue to be dubbed. Our real question is to get Tamil content onto our platform. We need to probably have a full fledged Tamil focus for which we will be able to create bandwidth only by October, November and December this year, which means the show will appear next financial year,” ALTBalaji CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya commented. “Bengali viewing audience or Marathi viewing audience can understand Hindi so we need to create that library of 10 to 15 shows and then enter the South market originally. Meanwhile, we do continue to have a dubbed presence in these markets,” he added.
In an astute move ,Ekta Kapoor led production house this year retained the IP of the show Dil Hi To Hain reversing the industry norm. While the broadcasting right is with Sony, it can stream the show on ALTBalaji also. Regarding whether Sony pays less than competition, Lulla disagreed. He added further that each show has its own price rather than a standard half an hour rate card depending on the production quality and star cast. Explaining the detail, he reaffirmed there has been no loss of revenue because of this digital right.
While the TV production revenue remained flat across the last two quarters, three new show launches across broadcasters has been cited as the prime reason. For the very first time, the production house launched three shows in one month gaining the highest share post the IPL launch phase. “We have to incur costs in the beginning phase. This will definitely get dephased,” Lulla said confidently. Along with acquiring consumers for the digital platform and create a stable movie business, the company wants to ensure that the television business continues to ace the pack. It also hopes revenue will go up in the next quarters.
“Our focus obviously is on a good value pricing and which is why the television business is very important to us as much as the OTT business is strong on investment because we are in different cycles. The OTT business is in early stage growth and it will see galloping stage growth and maturity is really far away, so we would have got many, many years ahead of it,” Lulla said later.
iWorld
Why Peaky Blinders is one of television’s biggest hits that still deserves more attention
Six seasons, multiple awards and the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man bring the Shelby saga back into the spotlight
In the crowded universe of streaming content, only a handful of shows manage to leave a lasting cultural footprint. Peaky Blinders is overwhelmingly considered one of the biggest global hits of the past decade. Yet many viewers still haven’t fully explored the dark, gripping world of the Shelby family.
Originally produced for the UK’s BBC and later finding a massive global audience through Netflix, the series quietly grew from a British period drama into a worldwide streaming phenomenon.
Created by Steven Knight, the show follows the rise of the Shelby crime family in post-First World War Birmingham. What begins as a gritty street-gang story gradually expands into a sweeping narrative about ambition, politics, power and survival.
At the centre of the saga is Thomas Shelby, portrayed with extraordinary depth by Cillian Murphy. The casting of Murphy is widely regarded as perfect for the role. With piercing eyes, restrained dialogue and an almost hypnotic screen presence, he transforms Shelby into one of the most unforgettable characters in modern screen storytelling.
Murphy’s brilliance lies in his restraint. He rarely shouts or performs theatrically. Instead, a quiet stare, a calculated pause or a subtle shift in expression conveys the emotional storms within the character. Beneath the ruthless gang leader is a war veteran carrying trauma, guilt and loneliness. Murphy captures this complexity with remarkable precision, making Thomas Shelby both terrifying and deeply human.
Beyond its central performance, Peaky Blinders stands out for its unfiltered portrayal of reality. The show does not romanticise crime. Instead, it exposes the harsh social conditions of early 20th-century Britain, from poverty and class struggle to political extremism and the psychological scars left by war.
The series also presents powerful female characters who hold their own within the Shelby empire. Polly Gray, played by Helen McCrory, is the strategic backbone of the family and one of the most formidable figures in the story. Women in the series shape decisions, influence power structures and challenge the rigid social norms of the time.
Across six seasons, the narrative grows dramatically in scale. What begins in the smoky streets of Birmingham evolves into a story involving political conspiracies, fascism and international criminal networks.
The series has also earned significant critical acclaim. It won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2018 and multiple National Television Awards for Best Drama, cementing its reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated modern shows.
Another defining feature of the series is its iconic music. The show’s opening theme, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, became instantly recognisable and widely associated with the Shelby universe. Combined with a powerful soundtrack featuring artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the music helped shape the show’s dark, stylish identity and became hugely popular among fans.
And the Shelby story is not over yet.
In fact, its legacy is unfolding right now. The long-awaited feature-length continuation, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, was released on March 6, 2026, bringing the Shelby universe from streaming screens to cinemas and giving fans a new chapter in the saga.
For viewers who have not yet stepped into this world, the timing could not be better.
Six gripping seasons are ready to binge on Netflix. A new film has just arrived in theatres. And at the heart of it all stands one of the most magnetic performances in modern drama by Cillian Murphy.
So if Peaky Blinders has been sitting on your watchlist for years, this weekend is your moment.
So, by order of the Peaky fookin’ Blinders, consider this your cue to finally step into the ruthless world of Thomas Shelby. Pour yourself a drink, clear your schedule and press the play button. Because when the Peaky Blinders give an order, you listen.
