iWorld
Studio9 enters OTT with Jazz City, a high-stakes espionage drama
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh Liberation War, the ten-episode Sony LIV series marks a bold first move for TV9 Network’s premium production arm
CALCUTTA: A Park Street jazz club. A reluctant spy. Calcutta, 1971.
Studio9, the premium content arm of TV9 Network, has arrived on India’s mainstream OTT stage with exactly the kind of prestige drama it has been promising, and Jazz City, now streaming on Sony LIV, is a bold opening statement.
The ten-episode historical espionage series follows Jimmy Roy, played by Bangladeshi star Arifin Shuvoo, the owner of a Park Street jazz club who is pulled from comfortable detachment into the dangerous underground of the resistance movement. When Indian intelligence officer Sinha, played by Shantanu Ghatak, conscripts him into the world of spycraft, Calcutta’s most glamorous nightspot becomes a covert nerve centre for spies, revolutionaries, war journalists and refugees.
The series was created, written and directed by Soumik Sen, whose previous credits include the acclaimed OTT series Jubilee and the feature film Gulaab Gang. It is produced by Studio9 in partnership with StudioNext, with creative producer Arpita Chatterjee helming the complex multi-location shoot spanning West Pakistan, East Pakistan and Calcutta. Cinematographer Pratik Parmar’s recreation of 1970s Park Street is complemented by an original soundtrack composed by Arka Mukherjee, Diptarka Bose and Soumik Sen, blending jazz with Rabindra Sangeet to evoke the cultural tensions of the era. The ensemble cast includes Sauraseni Maitra, Sayandeep Sengupta, Shreya Bhattacharya, Shataf Figar, Tanika Basu, Aniruddha Gupta, Amit Saha and Alexandra Taylor.
The reviews since its March 18 launch have been warm. IWMBuzz praised the show for conjuring an atmospheric noir world in which the jazz club becomes “an ambiguous sanctuary, simultaneously a refuge and a crucible of danger”, while singling out Shuvoo’s ability to blend charisma with world-weariness. NewsBytesApp called it “moody, politically charged, and artistic”, adding that Shuvoo’s performance makes it an engaging watch and that Park Street itself gradually becomes a crucial character.
Sen is unapologetic about his ambitions. “Jazz City is my love letter to Bengal’s untold post-Independence saga,” he said. “Delivering this under tight timelines without a single compromise on creative excellence has been thrilling. It’s proof that bold Bengali storytelling can command global stages. Studio9’s backing has unleashed our most ambitious work yet.”
Chatterjee echoed the mood. “Jazz City on Sony LIV marks Studio9’s entry into prestige OTT content,” she said. “It is our statement of intent: world-class narratives rooted in cultural truth, executed with precision. Our recent Asian Television Award for Fan and Fanatics showed what we are capable of. Jazz City is another testament to our growing capabilities.”
That award, a best documentary programme win at the 30th Asian Television Awards in Singapore, gave Studio9 a timely credential ahead of this debut. The production house is also in post-production on Duologue with Barun Das, Season 4, featuring Sourav Ganguly, Vijay Amritraj, Lothar Matthäus, Bianca Balti and Aamir Khan, set to premiere on Jio Hotstar.
Bengali-language storytelling has long punched below its weight on national and global platforms. With Jazz City, Studio9 is making the case that it need not.
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.
