iWorld
ALTBalaji completes three years with over 60 original shows across genres
MUMBAI: ALTBalaji, one of the country’s leading homegrown OTT platforms, has completed three years, continuing to break new ground and setting milestones on its way to further success.
On the back of an extensive, diverse content library that spans multiple genres, the platform has established a niche for itself in the originals space and played a vital role in inculcating an individual binge-watching habit amongst Indian audiences. Owing to its resounding mass appeal, ALTBalaji has emerged as the fastest-growing homegrown platform with more than 60 originals to its name and aims to curate more in the coming days.
Since its inception, ALTBalaji has been able to stay well ahead of the curve and grab the audience’s attention through its unique narratives, innovative business strategies, and clutter-breaking original Hindi content. Growing from strength to strength, ALTBalaji has today become a major player in the Indian OTT industry and gains further encouragement by the massive spike in subscribers. With a plethora of original content that keeps viewers thoroughly entertained, ALTBalaji has consistently ranked number three in the list of top grossing video streaming apps in the country across the app store (Source: App Annie).
Adopting a completely different strategy to its competitors in terms of content creation, partnerships or marketing, ALTBalaji is well on its way to profitability. Witnessing its costs getting controlled in the first half of fiscal 2020 and the loss margin further reducing at the end of the current fiscal, the platform aims to break even in 2020-21. With content being ALTBalaji’s biggest differentiator, the platform has reached out to all kinds of audiences across the length and breadth of the country through a healthy mix of thriller, drama, romance, teenage drama, horror, and comedy, among others.
Giving importance in growing its regional subscriber base, the leading OTT player has a host of its Hindi offerings dubbed in Indian as well as foreign languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bahasa, and Arabic, amongst others. In their endeavor to engage the audience and offer them an immersive viewing experience, ALTBalaji is also working towards strengthening its UI/UX by focusing on aspects like language interface, voice search, targeted retention strategies, tailored recommendations, quick onboarding, and convenient payment gateways.
“ALTBalaji, since its inception, has served as a flag-bearer for clutter-breaking original content and shall continue to do so. Being from the house of Balaji Telefilms, which have been catering to the audiences' ever-changing preferences for over 25 years now, ALTBalaji has an advantage like no other with a deeper understanding and familiarity with the viewer’s consumption preferences. By constantly working on an effective content strategy to cater to individuals, we aim to ramp up our original offerings at an exciting pace. Our core focus right now is to capture the Hindi-speaking market through our innovative content offerings along with expanding our regional language content library in the coming years. As we set sights towards breaking even in this new year, we shall continue to keep our viewers as the focal point, build our strategies around them and cement our position as a market leader in the industry,” ALTBalaji CEO and Balaji Telefilms group COO Nachiket Pantvaidya said.
ALTBalaji has been a pioneer in starting the trend of original soundtracks in the web-series space. In addition, ALTBalaji also launched some interesting and innovative initiatives; naming a few would be the ‘Breast Buffer’ campaign which was initiated to create awareness against breast cancer.
ALT has also renovated a public school during the launch of the school drama 'Class of 2020, providing better infrastructure for the students. Recently, ALTBalaji associated with Impact Guru for a fundraising effort ‘One Meal at a Time’ for the distribution of food to the underprivileged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further enhancing the user experience, the OTT platform brought its most-acclaimed series Apharan to Alexa, enabling its users to listen to dialogues, the trailer and other exclusive content from this successful show. Fans of the show can enjoy and soak in the immersive and gripping experience provided by the suspense thriller, with just a simple voice command to their favorite Echo device.
Spanning a host of diverse genres, the year saw plenty of ALTBalaji shows garner rave reviews from audiences and critics alike. Mentalhood, the recently-launched drama on parenthood, went on to earn a resounding 8.9 rating on IMDb. On the other hand, Mission Over Mars (M-O-M), the inspirational tale of four women, raked in a rating of 8.6. ALTBalaji continued to keep the thriller-suspense and courtroom drama genre as exciting as Code M and The Verdict – State Vs. Nanavati received a rating of 8.3 and 8.6 respectively.
In this lockdown period, ALTBalaji has come to everyone’s rescue by entertaining audiences via their diverse bouquet of originals. Its soaring popularity has resulted in the ALTBalaji app, being one of the top three grossing apps in the OTT category, according to App Annie. With recent launches like 'Mentalhood', which featured a talented pool of actors like Karisma Kapoor, Dino Morea, Sandhya Mridul, Sanjay Suri, Shruti Seth, Shilpa Shukla, and Tillotama Shome, 'Who’s Your Daddy?' and 'XXX Uncensored Season 2', the platform has kept the entertainment quotient high. ALTBalaji will continue to do so with planning to launch almost 25-30 shows this year including 'Kehne Ko Humsafar Hai 3', 'Baarish 2', 'Bebaakee', 'Mumbhai', 'Apharan 2' and many more.
Gaming
India’s new online gaming rules take effect today, banning money games and creating a regulator
The rules, in force from today, separate e-sports from gambling and impose jail terms and stiff fines on violators
NEW DELHI: India’s online gaming sector woke up this morning to a new reality. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, came into force today, May 1st, turning a year of legislative intent into enforceable law. The message from New Delhi is blunt: e-sports and social games are welcome; online money games are not.
The rules operationalise the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming (PROG) Act, passed by Parliament in August 2025. Together, they represent the most sweeping regulatory intervention India has made in its booming digital gaming market, one that generated Rs 23,200 crore in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 11 per cent to reach Rs 31,600 crore by 2027. The stakes, in every sense, could not be higher.
A sector out of control
The urgency behind the legislation is not hard to find. An estimated 45 crore Indians have been affected by online money gaming platforms, with losses exceeding Rs 20,000 crore. Addiction, financial ruin, money laundering, and suicides have all been linked to the sector. Seventy-seven per cent of the market’s revenues came from transaction-based games, a figure that made regulators deeply uneasy.
The government’s response, effective as of today, is categorical. Online money games, whether based on chance, skill, or any mix of the two, are banned outright. So is their advertising, promotion, and facilitation. Banks and payment processors are barred from handling related transactions. Unlawful platforms can be blocked under the Information
Technology Act, 2000.
The penalties are designed to sting. Offering or facilitating online money games can attract up to three years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore, or both. Repeat offenders face a minimum of three years, extendable to five, with fines between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore. Advertising such games carries up to two years in prison and fines of up to Rs 50 lakh, with repeat violations attracting higher penalties still. Cyber cell officers at state and union territory levels, including at police station, district, and commissionerate levels, are empowered to investigate offences.
The new sheriff in town
At the centre of the new framework sits the Online Gaming Authority of India, a digital-first regulator constituted as an attached office of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, headquartered in Delhi. It is chaired by the additional secretary of MeitY and includes joint secretary-level representation from home affairs, finance, information and broadcasting, youth affairs and sports, and law and justice, a deliberately multi-sectoral design built for a complex sector.
The authority’s powers are broad. It will maintain and publish lists of online money games, investigate complaints, issue directions, orders, and codes of practice, hear appeals on user grievances, and coordinate with financial institutions and law enforcement to ensure effective and timely action.
Its decisions on game classification are to be completed within 90 days, a time-bound commitment that industry players have welcomed after years of regulatory ambiguity. Classification can be triggered by the authority acting on its own initiative, by an application from a service provider, or by a notification from the central government. Games will be assessed on objective factors: whether stakes are involved, whether players expect monetary winnings, the revenue model, and whether in-game assets can be monetised outside the game. The outcome is recorded in a determination order specific to the game and provider.
E-sports gets its moment
While the crackdown on money gaming dominates today’s headlines, the rules also carve out a structured path for e-sports and online social games. Registration, required when notified by the central government, applies to all games offered as e-sports and is based on factors including risk to users, scale, financial transactions, and country of origin. A successful application yields a digital certificate of registration with a unique number, valid for up to ten years. Service providers must display registration details, designate a point of contact, comply with data retention requirements, and follow directions on facilitating payments.
Online money games are explicitly ineligible for recognition or registration as e-sports under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. The separation is deliberate, and the industry has noticed.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, called today’s operationalisation “encouraging,” pointing to publisher-led registration of esports titles and a time-bound determination process as creating “much-needed certainty for all stakeholders.” He added that the “continued emphasis on clearly separating esports from online money gaming is critical in preserving the integrity of competitive gaming as a skill-driven discipline.” He described it as “a proud moment to see official acknowledgement of the broader benefits of responsible esports and gaming, from building confidence, discipline, and teamwork to creating new career pathways for young talent,” and said the framework sets “a strong foundation for the ecosystem to scale in a more structured and globally competitive manner.”
Animesh Agarwal, co-founder and chief executive of S8UL, was equally bullish. “This clarity is critical in unlocking investor confidence and attracting multi-genre brands, while also enabling organisations to take a more long-term view, whether in investing in talent, scaling teams, or building globally competitive formats,” he said, adding that it “strengthens trust among audiences and mainstream stakeholders, positioning esports not just as a sport, but as a fast-growing youth entertainment category in India.”
But Agarwal urged caution on several fronts. There remains limited clarity around financial frameworks, particularly in how esports earnings are treated by banks and financial institutions. A well-defined pathway for the formal recognition or registration of esports teams is still evolving, as are structured player protections. He also called for smoother visa processes for esports athletes competing in international tournaments and for government support in developing infrastructure, including bootcamps, training facilities, and access to high-performance equipment across titles.
Vishal Parekh, chief operating officer of CyberPowerPC India, pointed to downstream effects on education and careers. “With formal recognition and policy backing, colleges and institutions are more likely to take the sector seriously, whether through dedicated esports infrastructure, training programmes, or curriculum integration,” he said, adding that this helps students view gaming as a viable career spanning roles across competitive play, content, game development, and allied industries. He noted that as esports gains prominence in global multi-sport events, the framework strengthens India’s position in international competitive gaming, and called on the ecosystem to provide the right infrastructure and access to high-performance hardware to unlock opportunities in talent development and job creation.
Protecting users, one safeguard at a time
The rules introduce a layered system of user protections calibrated to the risk profile of each game. These include age verification, age gating, time restrictions, parental controls, user reporting tools, counselling support, and fair-play and integrity monitoring. Service providers must disclose their safety features and internal grievance mechanisms when applying for determination or registration.
A two-tier grievance redressal system sits atop these safeguards. Users who are dissatisfied with a platform’s resolution can escalate to the authority within 30 days. The authority aims to dispose of such appeals within a further 30 days. A second appeal lies before the secretary of MeitY, who must also endeavour to resolve matters within 30 days. Enforcement proceedings will be conducted in digital mode wherever possible, with cases targeted for resolution within 90 days from receipt of a complaint.
Penalties under the framework are proportionate, taking into account gain from non-compliance, loss to users, the gravity of the offence, and whether violations are recurring. Mitigation efforts by service providers will also be considered when determining penalties. All penalties imposed under the Act will be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India.
The money follows the rules
For investors and founders, the implications are immediate and significant. Sagar Nair, head of incubation at LVL Zero Incubator, a 100-day sprint designed to accelerate early-stage gaming startups across India, argues that with real-money gaming now prohibited, capital will shift “away from transaction-driven models toward content-led, IP-driven, and global-first gaming businesses.” He acknowledged trade-offs: for operators with exposure to real-money formats, the market becomes more restrictive in the near term. But he argued that by clearly separating esports and non-money gaming from online money gaming, “India is positioning itself as a hub for responsible, creative, and scalable game development.” The opportunity, he said, is “to view India not just as a monetisation-first market, but as a talent, IP, and scale market,” adding that “for founders and investors willing to adapt, this shift could ultimately strengthen India’s position in the global gaming landscape.”
The government frames the wider impact in equally ambitious terms: a boost to India’s creative economy and digital exports, new career pathways for young people, protection for families from predatory platforms, and a stronger voice in global digital governance. India, it argues, offers a model for other countries grappling with the same tensions between gaming’s economic promise and its social risks, one that shows innovation and strong safeguards need not be mutually exclusive.
Whether the framework delivers on those promises will depend on enforcement, always the hardest part. But from today, the architecture is firmly in place: a regulator with teeth, a classification system with deadlines, penalties designed to deter, and a clear dividing line between games that build careers and games that destroy finances. For a sector that has grown fast and governed itself loosely, May 1st, 2026 is the day the free ride ends.
