iWorld
Mallika Sherawat chooses ZEE5 for her web-series debut!
MUMBAI: In a first-of-its-kind series, ZEE5 has launched ‘The Story’, a web series that gives you a quirky peek into the lives of celebrities through incidents that are either their worst nightmare or their favourite fantasy. For the series, ZEE5 – India’s largest and most comprehensive digital entertainment platform for multilingual entertainment, has featured Swara Bhaskar and Sumeet Vyas’s stories, & the episode featuring Mallika Sherawat will release on 26th June 2018.
The Story is a web-series which has a different take on bridging the gap between reel and real-life. The series highlights select incidents from the lives of each of the actors. Now it is anybody’s guess if the incidents are real or a figment of their imagination. The series is available on ZEE5 in the languages of Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu & Marathi.
With the latest episode featuring Mallika, audience are in for a dose of drama watching Mallika fight off a stalker. It takes us through a thrilling experience where she is harassed by threatening calls from a stalker and on the verge of ambush. Her journey to finding out the true identity of the mystery stalker will have you at the edge of the seat all through.
The first episode narrated by Swara Bhaskar talks about her story with her ex-flame. Swara describes it as the crazy break-up night where the couple was bothered by a jealous ex-girlfriend, cops running after them and a curious taxi driver.
Sumeet Vyas, starring in the second episode, talks about his obsession (read as OCD) with hygiene. Be ready to have a fun-filled session while watching Sumeet react to an unclean car situation, making him anxious for a date and picking up fights.
Commenting on the launch, ZEE5 India, Chief Marketing Officer, Manish Aggarwal said, “The Story is a successful experiment by ZEE5 with unscripted life stories of celebrities. The first two episodes with Swara and Sumeet have received a phenomenal response from our viewers and we are confident that the third episode with Mallika will be well-received too. This is a big one for us in our original content portfolio and viewers can expect many more such innovative formats from the ZEE5 stable.”
ZEE5 has an exciting original content line-up which will feature some of the biggest and most entertaining faces from the world of Indian entertainment. The platform will have 90+ original shows by the end of March 2019.
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.
