MAM
Hyrox hits full throttle as Bengaluru gears up for record-breaking race
MUMBAI: When fitness meets frenzy, the stopwatch barely stands a chance. Hyrox is flexing its muscles in India once again, and Bengaluru is already feeling the burn. The global fitness racing phenomenon has clocked over 5,000 registrations within days of opening entries for Hyrox Bengaluru 2026, making it one of the fastest-selling races in the country’s Hyrox journey so far.
Scheduled for April 11 and 12, 2026, at Hall 04 of the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, the two-day format marks a first for Hyrox in India. It also signals just how quickly the sport has sprinted from niche curiosity to mainstream fitness obsession.
The numbers tell their own story. Hyrox debuted in India with 1,500 athletes in Mumbai, scaled up to 2,500 participants in Delhi, and then smashed expectations with more than 3,300 competitors at its second Mumbai edition in September. Bengaluru now looks set to raise the bar yet again, with organisers expecting over 8,000 athletes to hit the course.
Demand has not just been local. Within the first week, athletes from 22 countries signed up, reinforcing India’s growing pull on the global hybrid fitness circuit. The current split stands at 68 per cent men and 32 per cent women, pointing to a steadily diversifying and inclusive community.
For Deepak Raj, Country Head, Hyrox India, the momentum feels personal as well as professional. Bengaluru, he noted, mirrors India’s evolving fitness culture and provides the perfect backdrop for what could become the country’s biggest fitness race weekend to date.
Adding to the stakes, Hyrox Bengaluru 2026 will double up as a qualifier for the Hyrox World Championships in Stockholm in June 2026, putting Indian athletes on a direct pathway to the global stage.
The format remains as brutal as it is addictive: eight one-kilometre runs, each paired with a functional workout station, designed to test endurance, strength and mental grit in equal measure. With Individual, Doubles and Relay Team categories open to participants aged 16 to 78 plus, the event promises a rare blend of elite competition and mass participation.
If early registrations are any indication, Hyrox Bengaluru will not just be a race against the clock, it will be a full-blown statement on how fast India’s fitness culture is learning to run.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
