iWorld
Hoichoi announces new web series titled “Charitraheen”
MUMBAI: Hoichoi, the world’s largest digital Bengali entertainment content platform, announced yesterday that Debaloy Bhattacharya will be directing a new Original web series called ‘Charitraheen’.
Hoichoi has recently completed 6 months since its inception, and has promised to deliver Original web series, shorts and films every month. This project is much anticipated and will be streaming around July/August.
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 main cast were revealed in an interesting way, as director Debaloy Bhattacharya presented each member by flipping the pages of a book and revealing their “look” in the series. Naina Ganguly is introduced in front of the media, who will be working in the Bengali Industry for the first time and is known for her work in Bollywood. Rest of the cast includes well-known actors Gourab Chatterjee, Saurav Das and Saayoni Ghosh.
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!
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.
iWorld
Banijay Asia’s The 50 tops OTT charts with 8.1 million JioHotstar views
Reality competition becomes most watched show on JioHotstar in debut week.
MUMBAI: Fifty contestants walked into a palace, but millions of viewers showed up for the drama. Reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Asia, has emerged as the most watched show on JioHotstar, clocking 8.1 million views in its debut week. The figure, reported by Ormax Media, places the show at the top of the OTT viewership charts and marks a strong opening for the digital reality format.
Adapted from a popular French format, The 50 brings together 50 personalities from television, digital platforms, music and reality shows inside a grand palace setting. Over the course of a 50 day competition, participants form alliances, compete in unpredictable tasks and navigate eliminations as the field steadily narrows.
Guiding the game is a mysterious figure known as The Lion, an unseen game master whose voice introduces twists, challenges and strategic turns throughout the show, adding an extra layer of suspense to the contest.
What distinguishes The 50 from typical reality competitions is its audience driven prize structure. Instead of the winner taking home the final reward, the prize is awarded to one of the winner’s registered followers through the show’s dedicated app. The mechanism effectively turns viewers into participants, allowing fans to have a direct stake in the outcome.
The contestant lineup features a mix of television actors, reality stars and digital creators, including Karan Patel, Urvashi Dholakia, Divya Agarwal, Mr Faisu and Dushyant Kukreja, each bringing their own fan following to the show.
With its blend of celebrity personalities, strategic gameplay and interactive viewer participation, The 50 has quickly carved out a strong foothold in India’s digital entertainment landscape. Its 8.1 million views in the opening week underline the growing appetite for large scale reality formats designed specifically for OTT audiences.
