iWorld
Cyrus Oshidhar’s 101India launches digital series on underground hip hop scene
MUMBAI: 101India.com is planning to launch a web series on the flourishing Indian underground hip hop scene called Hip Hop Homeland.
The first six episodes will be released on 20 January, 2016, followed by the next five episodes on 27 January, 2016.
It is a series of raw, gritty profiles about a fast emerging youth trend, which cuts across gender, class and geography, and makes powerful statements of youth identity and voice.
Talking about the show, 101India CCO and MD Cyrus Oshidhar said, “Our team panned out to different parts of India to discover talented rap artistes. The new trend in hip hop is coming through the slums and the chawls, and the rappers covered in the Hip Hop Homeland series speak in a street ‘bhasha’ that draws on local languages in a quest for authenticity. The sugar-coated romance that we see in Bollywood might have takers but there is also an audience for the angst and rebelliousness these boys express. These are voices worth listening to and their words are being amplified across the internet to a broader audience.”
Hip Hop Homeland begins in Mumbai and travels to Kashmir, Shillong, Punjab, Calcutta and finally South India. The first leg of the series will showcase 11 videos of six – seven mins minutes featuring various artists such as TodFod, Mawwali, Voctronica, Kinga Rhymes, BobKat, Ace, Zake (graffiti artist) Beast Mode (the crew), Shawty Pink, Flying Machine (Arif), DMC.
One of the artists Aklesh Sutar aka Mawali, the Marathi rapper from Swadesi says, “We got the kind of love and reception in our mother tongue that we didn’t in English. Because of the internet, you can be sitting here rhyming in Bengali and finding your audience in Kolkata. It doesn’t matter where you are.”
Rapper Dharmesh Parmar aka TodFod a part of rap crew Swadeshi adds, “Hip means knowledge. Hop means movement. Hip Hop is the movement of knowledge. The reference here is to the larger sub-culture within which it falls. Within hip hop comes not just rap, but also other forms of self expression from music to dance to visual art, and ultimately, for these boys, a philosophy.”
iWorld
Applause, Story TV team up to push microdrama content
Partnership to create premium short form shows for mobile first viewers
MUMBAI: Applause Entertainment and Story TV are betting on short attention spans with a long-term vision, joining forces to create a slate of premium microdramas for mobile-first audiences.
The partnership brings together Applause’s storytelling pedigree and Story TV’s fast-growing digital reach, with plans to co-produce and distribute bite-sized dramas across genres. As part of the deal, Story TV will also adapt the romantic thriller Hello Mini into a vertical microdrama format, signalling a shift in how stories are being reshaped for smaller screens.
Backed by the Aditya Birla Group, Applause Entertainment has built a reputation for high-quality content with titles like Scam 1992 and Criminal Justice. Story TV, launched in 2025, has quickly scaled up with a library of over 1,000 titles across languages and genres, riding the wave of mobile consumption.
Story TV founder and CEO Saurabh Pandey said, “Phones are now the primary screens for content consumption, and microdramas are evolving into a mainstream format. At Story TV, we are blending storytelling with technology to push this format further.”
He added that the collaboration with Applause Entertainment will help expand the reach of microdramas while introducing a layer of premium storytelling to the space.
Applause Entertainment chief business officer Prasoon Garg said, “At Applause, we have always focused on strong storytelling across formats. As microdramas gain momentum, this partnership allows us to explore the space with a platform that understands both the format and its audience.”
With mobile screens shrinking and content getting sharper, the collaboration hints at a future where storytelling is not just shorter, but smarter, designed to fit neatly into the scroll of everyday life.
