iWorld
Case Study: When short-form video enables long-form video
Mumbai: What is the most strikingly common feature between “Mirzapur: Season two,” “Bigg Boss: Season 15,” and the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021? All three are big-ticket, entertaining OTT releases in the past year. But an even more compelling factor is that they have captured the attention of the audiences via multiple campaigns hosted on short-video app Josh. This is significant of a larger pattern, wherein, OTT platforms are now seeing the increasing benefit in reaching out to the audiences through homegrown short-video apps.
Onset of Josh’s OTT saga
India has a voracious appetite for video content. The success story of these offerings showcases the fact that both short-form and long-form videos are proactively meeting the content needs of users across the country. The video content boom, which began in the early days of the pandemic, with nearly 350 million people consuming videos online in India, will only rise upwards. As per a Bain & Company report, it is further expected to reach 600 – 650 million in 2025. While short-form videos provide users with snackable content that is quick and easy to consume, long-form video caters to their need for in-depth content with a lengthier viewing experience.
A new trend to have emerged in recent times is that OTT platforms are leveraging these consumption patterns in collaboration with short-video platforms to promote their own content and reach wider audiences. This is where Josh’s saga with popular OTT platforms begins. The app has crafted and curated some of the most successful campaigns using hashtags, soundboards, filters, and influencers to promote a variety of web series, movies, sports leagues, and reality shows.
Promoting Web Series
In a long-standing partnership with Amazon Prime Video, Josh has promoted several popular Prime productions such as “Mirzapur season 2,” “Sherni,” “Jai Bhim,” “Sarpatta” and “Malik.” The partnership boasts spectacular results with the most popular campaign gaining 170+ million video views, 5.5K UGC videos, and 15+ million hearts.
Furthermore, Josh’s partnership with Voot has resulted in exciting campaigns for the new season of the popular reality TV show “Bigg Boss.” Two campaigns, the #BiggBoss15AsliFan and the #BiggBossOTTChallenge, were launched to promote season 15. With unique soundboards specific to different local languages, dynamic filters, and hashtags to enhance top-of-the-mind recall, they garnered a total of 654+ million video views, 30K+ UGC videos, and 51+ million hearts.
What is interesting is that Josh’s campaign trail is not limited to web series, but also covers other genres of entertainment such as music, movies, and sports, among others.
Amplifying sport challenges
Sports shows have an inbuilt tendency to attract audience frenzy. With its reach and power of amplification, Josh added to the existing thrill with some popular campaigns.
For the Abu Dhabi T-10 League on Voot, Josh created filters, in-video transitions, and a theme song. The challenge succeeded in its mission of engagement, garnering 272+ million video views, 12+ K UGC videos, and 21+ million hearts. To organically promote the latest season of IPL and the anthem created by Nucleya for the teams with Disney+ Hotstar, an influencer-led campaign titled #IndiaKiVibeAlagHai was created. Best of Josh’s creators were given free reign to choose the team they wanted and amplify the tournament on the app. The campaign garnered 16+ million video views, 50+ influencer videos, and 310+K hearts.
When the Pro Kabaddi League returned to our screens for its latest edition on Star Sports, the app promoted it via a fun and engaging #LePanga challenge. Creating a sport-centric hook step, a dynamic filter, a catchy soundboard, the campaign garnered 179+ million video views, 5.9+ K UGC videos and 13.9+ million hearts.
The power of Bharat’s short video
As a homegrown short-video app, Josh has held an understanding of local context. Using its tact of connecting effortlessly with local audiences, it helped create a captivating campaign for Zee Bangla’s show “Uma.” With the hashtag #UmaChallenge, which is based on the show’s theme of cricket, female users were asked to balance a ball on a bat for 10 seconds. The app helped the platform reach out to a vast Bengali user base in the country creating over eight million video views, 140+ UGC videos, and 630+ K hearts.
Summing the impact of Josh’s local reach, VerSe innovation chief revenue officer Sunil Kumar Mohapatra said, “As a homegrown short-video app, we understand the users of Bharat and their content needs. As OTT platforms increasingly meet the local language content needs of Bharat, we, at Josh, by leveraging our talented creator community and our understanding of the local context are enabling these platforms to reach out to wider and relevant audiences, as we operate at the intersection of our user preferences, creators needs, and brand propositions.”
Indeed, short-video platforms are becoming an increasingly viable route for OTT platforms to promote their content largely because of their snackable quality. The method of promotion becomes even more effective given the rise of local language content and homegrown short-video apps that have cracked the code of engagement for such content and its audiences.
Gaming
Game, set, and match: India finally plays by the rules on online gaming
A sweeping new framework sorts esports from gambling dens and gives an impatient industry something it has long been asking for: a rulebook.
MUMBAI: For years, India’s gaming industry has lived in a strange kind of limbo, with stadiums filling up, investment pouring in, athletes competing internationally, and yet no one in government could quite agree on what to call any of it. Esports sat uncomfortably alongside fantasy apps and real-money poker rooms in the same regulatory grey zone, founders built companies on the shifting sand of legal ambiguity, and hardware makers waited patiently for a market that kept growing without ever being formally acknowledged. The industry, in short, had the audience, the talent, and the capital, just not the paperwork. That changes now.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has notified the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, a landmark framework that comes into force on the 1st of May. Finalised after extensive inter-ministerial consultations and vetted by the Department of Legal Affairs, it draws the clearest line yet between competitive gaming and gambling, hands publishers a formal path to get their titles recognised as esports, and puts a multi-ministry authority in place to govern a sector that has, until now, largely governed itself.
The framework’s most consequential move is establishing a 90-day determination process through which game publishers can formally register their titles as esports disciplines. Once registered, a title earns unambiguous recognition as a skill-based sporting pursuit, legally distinct from online money gaming and protected from the kind of misrepresentation that has long allowed real-money platforms to present themselves as esports. The rules also align esports governance across two complementary acts: technology and licensing under MeitY, and sporting oversight under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. These are two frameworks with one clear direction and no collision.
For Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, one of the original architects of India’s esports ecosystem, the new framework is both vindication and opportunity. He welcomed the structural clarity while also flagging one detail worth watching: a terminological choice that could place India slightly out of step with global conventions.
“The enactment of the PROG Act, 2025 brings much-needed clarity and structure to India’s esports ecosystem. The provision for formal registration of titles as esports by publishers is a particularly welcome move, as it eliminates the risk of misrepresentation and prevents proxy real-money platforms from self-declaring themselves as esports. The introduction of a 90-day determination process strikes the right balance between regulatory scrutiny and certainty. For players, teams, tournament operators, broadcasters, sponsors, and other ecosystem participants, this creates a clear signal: once registered, an esport is unequivocally recognized as a legitimate sporting discipline. The explicit exclusion of online money games from being classified as esports is another critical step. It removes ambiguity and reinforces that competitive gaming is a skill-driven pursuit independent of any wagering or monetary constructs. It is also encouraging to see that the framework recognizes esports as a publisher-led ecosystem rather than a federation-led one, aligned with technology and licensing principles under MeitY, while governance as a sport continues under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. This dual alignment ensures both regulatory clarity and sporting legitimacy without creating parallel or conflicting structures. The composition of the authority, bringing together key ministries across technology, finance, sports, law, and internal affairs, is equipped for informed decision-making in a rapidly evolving sector. Overall, this level of clarity is a significant positive for the industry and sets a strong precedent globally. Our only suggestion would be to align the terminology with global conventions by adopting ‘esports’ instead of ‘e-sports’ to ensure consistency with international standards.”
NODWIN Gaming co-founder and managing director Akshat Rathee.
A hyphen, in the grand scheme of a sweeping regulatory overhaul, is perhaps a battle for another day. The more pressing question for the rest of the industry is what comes next, because while the welcome is warm, it is not unconditional.
Animesh Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO of S8UL, greeted the rules as a meaningful step forward, one that allows his organisation to finally plan with a longer horizon. But he was equally direct about the gaps that remain, the kind that a gazette notification alone cannot close.
“The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 is a positive step forward for Indian esports. It brings much-needed structure to the ecosystem and clearly separates esports from online money gaming, helping address long-standing confusion around the space. For organisations like S8UL, this direction allows us to take a more long-term view – investing in talent, scaling teams, and building globally competitive structures with greater confidence. That said, there are still important gaps that need to be addressed. Esports teams and players continue to face a lack of clarity on financial frameworks, with ongoing challenges in how banks differentiate between esports earnings and real money gaming. There is also no clear pathway today to formally register esports teams as entities within a defined structure. More importantly, players and organisations still lack comprehensive protections under a clear regulatory framework. Addressing these areas will be critical for the ecosystem to move from early structure to full legitimacy and long-term sustainability.”
S8UL co-founder and CEO Animesh Agarwal
It is a fair point, and one that the industry will no doubt press further as the rules bed in. A framework that separates esports from gambling is necessary, but it is not, by itself, sufficient. The downstream questions of how professional players are taxed, how their organisations are incorporated, and what legal protections they enjoy are very much still open.
On the hardware and infrastructure side of the conversation, Vishal Parekh, chief operating officer of CyberPowerPC India, framed the development in terms of what it signals outward to the global players who have been sitting on the fence about committing to India as a gaming market.
“The enactment of the Online Gaming Act 2025 is a landmark step towards bringing structure and accountability to India’s gaming ecosystem. By formally recognising esports as a distinct, skill-based category, it addresses long-standing misconceptions that have held the industry back. The introduction of clear guardrails and enforcement mechanisms will play a crucial role in building trust, not just among players and families, but also among global partners, brands and investors looking at India as a growth market. As esports continues to gain prominence in international multi-sport events, this move strengthens India’s position in the global competitive gaming landscape. With the right ecosystem support from infrastructure to training and hardware access, we can unlock significant economic and talent-driven opportunities for the country.”
CyberPowerPC India chief operating officer Vishal Parekh
It is a perspective that carries weight. India’s esports footprint at international multi-sport events has been growing steadily, and a regulatory framework of this nature sends a signal that the country is not merely participating in the global gaming conversation; it is prepared to help shape it.
Perhaps the most tangible immediate impact, though, may be felt at the very earliest end of the industry, amongst the founders, the tinkerers, and the builders still figuring out what their companies are. Sagar Nair, head of incubation at LVL Zero Incubator, a 100-day programme designed to accelerate early-stage gaming startups across India, described the new rules as removing the single biggest headache founders in this space routinely encounter.
“The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 is a pivotal moment for early-stage gaming startups in India. Clarity in regulation is one of the most critical enablers for innovation, and this framework helps remove long-standing ambiguity that founders have had to navigate. By clearly distinguishing esports and non-money gaming from online money gaming, the Act creates a more predictable environment for builders to focus on creating high-quality gaming experiences, scalable IPs, and globally relevant products. For emerging startups, this is an opportunity to align with a more structured ecosystem, one that encourages creativity, responsible design, and long-term value creation. With the right support across funding, mentorship, and policy stability, India has the potential to become a hub for game development and interactive media innovation.”
LVL Zero Incubator head of incubation Sagar Nair
In a sector where a single regulatory grey area can derail an entire funding round, or send an investor heading for the exit, that kind of predictability is, frankly, priceless. For the startup ecosystem, this is less about what the rules permit and more about what they finally stop leaving uncertain.
The road ahead, of course, is longer than a single gazette notification. Banks still need educating, team registration frameworks still need building, and athlete protections still need codifying. But India’s gaming industry has, at long last, what it came for: a seat at the table, a rulebook on it, and, for the first time in a very long while, a reasonably clear view of what the game actually is.
