iWorld
Disney+ Hotstar leverages the metaverse to promote new show ‘Rudra’
Mumbai: Disney+ Hotstar has partnered with Hungama Digital’s Web 3.0 venture Hefty Entertainment to create digital avatars of the cast of its new show “Rudra – The Edge of Darkness.” The platform has created many firsts with this disruptive marketing strategy and innovation leveraging the metaverse.
The marketing team has installed a hologram of Ajay Devgn with an illusion of him looking at passersby in Mumbai’s Bandra Bandstand. Additionally, in partnership with Smaash the platform created a gaming and entertainment centre with the theme ‘todphod’ playing the iconic catchphrase used by the actor in the show. The gaming room was designed similar to the show’s set.
“A big part of building a deeper relationship with our consumers is to bring elements from reel life to real life and vice-versa,” said Disney+ Hotstar EVP and chief marketing officer Siddharth Shakdher. “With ‘Rudra-The Edge of Darkness,’ we did exactly that and deployed a unique experiential and immersive show marketing approach, bringing our consumers one step closer to the show, but importantly, also surfacing the show within emerging pop culture trends. With first-of-its-kind initiatives like Rudra Metaverse, gaming room, and hologram displays, we stepped up a notch higher to connect deeper with the audiences and fans.”
Directed by Rajesh Mapuskar, “Rudra – The Edge of Darkness” features actor Ajay Devgn in the role of a cop who delves into the psyche of highly intelligent criminal masterminds to capture them.
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
