iWorld
India gets its own webtoon comics app – Toonsutra
MUMBAI: In a first for the homegrown comics market, Toonsutra has arrived on the scene as a webtoon comics platform for mobile devices for free download on both iOS and Android devices.
Toonsutra, a subsidiary of Graphic India, will launch in April to bring Indian audiences hundreds of high quality webtoon formatted comics optimised for mobile devices. The new platform will release new free stories every day from groundbreaking creators and storytellers in India as well as top global comics made available in India and in Hindi and other regional languages for the very first time.
The Toonsutra app will feature a wide range of content for audiences across superhero, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, Bollywood, mythology, action, and more.
“Toonsutra will become India’s new storytelling home for disruptive creators across the country to experiment, innovate and create engaging webtoon comic stories for the world,” Graphic India co-founder Sharad Devarajan said. “Webtoon platforms have become an explosive phenomenon across Asia with top webtoon apps cumulatively reaching over 70 million monthly users and over a 100 billion views a year. For the first time, we want to make a webtoon app dedicated for Indians and spark a mobile webcomic revolution.”
In addition to comics from around the world, the platform will showcase and promote emerging rising star creators across India and give them a home to tell there stories. Using the medium of comics and webtoons these new voices can express every type of genre and story all with the support, guidance and expertise of Toonsutra's team to make it easy to collaborate with other creators, develop ideas and make those stories a reality.
On top of showcasing breakthrough Indian talents, Toonsutra will also offer users exclusive original webcomics based on some of the country’s biggest hit properties in film and TV such as the mega-blockbuster film Baahubali, and the recent animated hit streaming series The Legend of Hanuman; as well as new original webtoon comics based on Chakra The Invincible, the Indian superhero created by Stan Lee and Graphic India’s Devarajan.
Graphic India’s large library of comics will also be adapted into the vertical scroll webtoon reading format bringing their hit properties including, 18 Days: The Mahabharata; the female super-heroine series Devi created by filmmaker Shekhar Kapur as well as other Indian webcomics including, The Sadhu, Mistry P.I., Shadow Tiger, Unholi, Reincarnation Man, Shikari Force, The Mighty Yeti, Dragonfly, Avatarex Destroyer of Darkness, and many more.
The Toonsutra app will feature international superhero comics from leading US publisher, Valiant Entertainment bringing their hit characters Bloodshot, Shadowman, X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Archer & Armstrong, Ninjak, Rai and more to Indian audiences in Hindi for the first time.
iWorld
Banijay Asia’s The 50 tops OTT charts with 8.1 million JioHotstar views
Reality competition becomes most watched show on JioHotstar in debut week.
MUMBAI: Fifty contestants walked into a palace, but millions of viewers showed up for the drama. Reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Asia, has emerged as the most watched show on JioHotstar, clocking 8.1 million views in its debut week. The figure, reported by Ormax Media, places the show at the top of the OTT viewership charts and marks a strong opening for the digital reality format.
Adapted from a popular French format, The 50 brings together 50 personalities from television, digital platforms, music and reality shows inside a grand palace setting. Over the course of a 50 day competition, participants form alliances, compete in unpredictable tasks and navigate eliminations as the field steadily narrows.
Guiding the game is a mysterious figure known as The Lion, an unseen game master whose voice introduces twists, challenges and strategic turns throughout the show, adding an extra layer of suspense to the contest.
What distinguishes The 50 from typical reality competitions is its audience driven prize structure. Instead of the winner taking home the final reward, the prize is awarded to one of the winner’s registered followers through the show’s dedicated app. The mechanism effectively turns viewers into participants, allowing fans to have a direct stake in the outcome.
The contestant lineup features a mix of television actors, reality stars and digital creators, including Karan Patel, Urvashi Dholakia, Divya Agarwal, Mr Faisu and Dushyant Kukreja, each bringing their own fan following to the show.
With its blend of celebrity personalities, strategic gameplay and interactive viewer participation, The 50 has quickly carved out a strong foothold in India’s digital entertainment landscape. Its 8.1 million views in the opening week underline the growing appetite for large scale reality formats designed specifically for OTT audiences.
