iWorld
Airtel partners with VOOT to bring more premium content
KOLKATA: Airtel today announced a partnership with VOOT to bring more premium digital content on to its Airtel Xstream platform. Under the partnership, it will allow users to get access to premium VOOT content across multiple screens.
The rich portfolio of VOOT includes movies, originals, new episodes of their shows from Colors, MTV India and other Viacom-18 owned TV channels. This includes shows like Splitsvilla, MTV Roadies, Naagin, Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan, Choti Sarrdaarni, Bahu Begum, Bepannah in Hindi, the upcoming season of Bigg Boss as well as many regional language shows.
Airtel Xstream users can also enjoy a host of English shows like Feet Up with Stars, Work it Up with Sophie, BFF’s with Vogue, VH1 Inside Access with Miss Malini, Urban Wanderers and Trend Setters amongst others. The content from VOOT comes in seven languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali & Marathi.
India, which has the world’s second-highest number of internet users is seeing a massive surge in demand for video content as smartphone penetration deepens. With this partnership, Airtel Xstream has added to its premium content library of over 10,000 movies & shows and hundreds of LIVE TV channels.
Bharti Airtel content business and partnership head Nupur Chaturvedi said, “We are on a mission to deliver best-in-class digital entertainment experience to our users and make Airtel Xstream app the go-to destination for India’s entertainment needs. We are thrilled to partner with VOOT and bring their premium video content to our users.”
Viacom18 digital ventures COO Gourav Rakshit said, “We at VOOT have been keeping the country’s spirits high during these challenging times through various partnerships to bring meaningful and entertaining content for our viewers. Given the exponential demand for content, our collaboration with Airtel Xstream will help us reach and deliver our content experience to a larger audience base. We are elated to partner with a like-minded brand that resonates with our ideologies and is sure to help us make content viewing an enriching and engaging experience for all our viewers.”
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.
