iWorld
Digital entertainment: FreeCharge partners ALTBalaji, Eros Now & SonyLIV
MUMBAI: FreeCharge, a digital payments platform, has announced its partnership with ALTBalaji, largest digital platform for original shows from India, to provide easy, secure and fast digital payment solutions for users.
FreeCharge, India’s leading digital payments platform today announced its partnership with ALTBalaji, largest digital platform for original shows from India, to provide easy, secure and fast digital payment solutions for users.
The company also recently partnered with Eros Now and SonyLIV to accommodate a large set of millennials’ preferences of watching their favourite movies and shows on the go and to binge watch at their convenience.
These partnerships enable FreeCharge users to subscribe and pay for leading digital entertainment services on their platforms and cater to a wide set of audiences present across. Aimed at young audience, the objective of the tie-up is to provide users easy, secure and 2-click pay and check out option for quality entertainment content.
Talking about the partnership, FreeCharge COO Ankit Khanna said, “The audience today have slowly begun shifting towards online platforms for their entertainment needs and streaming services provide innovative content with a mass appeal. We are happy to be the payment facilitators for leading digital entertainment companies such as ALTBalaji, Eros Now and SonyLIV to ensure customers get quality entertainment without any difficulty. The aim is paying for preferred movies and shows should be as convenient as accessing them online.”
FreeCharge is building an ecosystem of merchants to make consumers’ daily payment transactions frictionless and convenient. With this partnership, FreeCharge further expands its usability across more consumption buckets of its consumers. The company which has tie-ups across brands and categories both offline and online aims to become the most preferred option for digital payments by making available easy, secure and less than 10 seconds pay and check out options to consumers.
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.
