iWorld
Hoichoi gives a glimpse of its 2021 content slate
KOLKATA: Bengali streaming giant Hoichoi today unveiled its content line-up for, 2021, which includes 18 powerful and irresistible stories. Apart from its impressive March line-up, the OTT also plans to add more shows and movies this year than it did in the past years.
Hoichoi has roped in top talents of the industry, such as Rahul Bose, Dev, Anirban Bhattacharya, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Srabanti, Soham, Swastika Mukherjee, Sohini Sarkar, Monami Ghosh, Saswata Chatterjee, Anirban Chakrabarti, Arjun Chakraborty, Anindita Bose, Tridha Choudhury debutants Soumya Mukherjee, Sweta Mishra, Susmita Chatterjee, Debasish Mondal. Along with Bangladesh sensations like Mosharraf Karim, Badhon, Shamol Mawla and more; creators Srijit Mukherji, Kamaleswar Mukherjee, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Anjan Dutt, Sahana Dutta, Mainak Bhaumik, Anirban Bhattacharya’s directorial debut will also join its vast library.
In a statement, Hoichoi co-founder Vishnu Mohta said, “At Hoichoi, we aim to bring distinct stories for our diverse audiences with variant taste. Our upcoming line-up is a reflection of that idea; each one of which is a gripping story of human emotions, filled with suspense, comedy, love, drama, thrill and longing. Every season we try to reinvent ourselves, with content from the brightest and newest creators of the region. So, #NotunGolpoHoyejak?”
The exciting line-up is as follows:
1. Maradonar Juto – Directed by Mainak Bhaumik, this romantic comedy with a fresh casting, filled with the spice of family drama talks about neighbouring families, residing in North Kolkata (Dutta family & Chowdhury family), who have a generational feud about a pair of shoes, which belongs to the great football legend, Maradona.
2. Dujone – A thriller, not a love story, Dujone marks the digital debut of much-loved on-screen pair, Soham and Srabanti, which talks about a wife’s dilemma to decipher her husband’s true personality.
3. Mohomaya – Helmed by Sahana Dutta, Mohomaya is a unique tale of a boy, jilted by his traumatic past, involving his mother, essayed by National Award-Winning actress Ananya Chatterjee, at a tender age, finds affection he longed for all his life in his friend's mother, played by powerhouse actress Swastika Mukherjee. National Award-Winning director Kamaleswar Mukherjee marks his digital directorial debut with the series.
4. Mohanagar – The story revolves around three characters and a pair of police officers whose lives get connected due to an incident that changes them and their belief in the system. Mohanagar marks the hoichoi debut of Bangladesh superstar Mosharraf Karim.
5. Srikanto – A modern day take of the cult novel in & within the matrix of childhood simplicity, adolescent innocence to complex neo-liberal social & interpersonal predicament of human existence. Will star a young talent Rishav Basu, in the lead.
6. Mandaar – Created and directed by Anirban Bhattacharya, Mandaar will be the first among ‘hoichoi World Classics’ segment that will bring Shakespeare's literary classic, Macbeth, to screen, featuring Debashish Mondal, Sohini Sarkar and Anirban Bhattacharya himself in the lead.
7. Mouchaak – A dark comedy, which will mark the digital debut of television personality, Monami Ghosh, Mouchaak chronicles a series of funny unfortunate events surrounding a housewife under house arrest, a series of guests and a lottery ticket.
8. Robindronath Ekhane Kawkhono Khete Aashenni – An adaptation from the popular Bangladesh novel of the same name by Mohammad Nazim Uddin, which will mark Srijit Mukherji’s first series on hoichoi starring the dynamic Rahul Bose as the detective who reaches a famed restaurant to uncover the truth behind its mysterious owner, Muskaan Zuberi, essayed by Bangladesh sensation, Azmari Haque Badhon.
9. Murder in the Hills – The suspicions death of a Bengali film star of the 90s unravels to expose the seedy underbelly of Darjeeling’s pasts. Written, directed and acted by Anjan Dutt, the series is well balanced with a slew of casts, such as Arjun Chakraborty, Anindita Bose, Rajdeep Gupta, Sandipta Sen, Sourav Chakraborty, Suprobhat Das amongst others.
10. Shei Je Holud Pakhi 2 – The much-awaited series returns with its second season which will culminate the popular musical-drama about Vaidehi’s death. Saswata Chatterjee and Tridha Choudhury are reprising their roles in this season.
11. Paap 2 – with Puja Banerjee & Rahul Banerjee as the lead, the mysteries of season 1 will unravel in season 2 with another set of deaths and unexpected deaths.
12. Eken Babu S5 – Anirban Chakrabarti will reprise the role of Eken Babu as the much-loved crime-thriller returns for its fifth season with a new mystery that unfolds itself.
13. Byomkesh S7 – Starring the very versatile Anirban Bhattacharya as Byomkesh, along with Suprobhat Das as Ajit, and Ridhima Ghosh as Satyabati, our popular detective will return with a new mystery based on Byomkesh Bakshi created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay.
14. Tangra Blues World Premiere – A story of a failed musician and a band on a verge of oblivion with Tangra – the most notorious slums in Kolkata as a backdrop, the film will see the fresh pairing of Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Madhumita for the first time.
15. Prem Tame World Premiere – It's a story of a revolution, within a young heart, inside a home, and in society. The film brings together the fresh casting of Soumya Mukherjee, Sweta Mishra and Susmita Chatterjee.
16. Kakababur Protyaborton World Premiere – Audience's beloved Kakababu, aka Raja Roychowdhury, essayed by Bengal’s industry himself – Prosenjit Chatterjee, returns for the third instalment of this popular franchise with his nephew, Shantu, this time traversing the dangerous terrains of Africa. This time, the film is based on Jongoler Moddhe Ek Hotel by Sunil Gangopadhyay.
17. Psycho World Premiere – Anirban Bhattacharya and Birsa Dasgupta return to team up for a thriller that is about a psychiatrist-turned-resident criminologist who teams up with the top-rank officials of law enforcement to hunt down a psychopath.
18. Golondaaj World Premiere – A biographical sports drama directed by Dhrubo Banerjee, starring superstar Dev in the lead, is the story of a pioneer in Indian football, named Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari.
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.
