iWorld
MX Player, ALTBalaji rope in Kangana Ranaut for new reality show ‘Lock Upp’
Mumbai: MX Player and ALTBalaji have partnered to launch a reality show ‘Lock Upp: Badass Jail, Atyaachari Khel’ with Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut as the host of the show. The show premieres on 27 February.
Produced by Endemol Shine, the show features 16 celebrities who are put together lock- up for months and stripped of their amenities. The announcement was made at a press conference on Thursday by Ekta R. Kapoor along with MX Media CEO Karan Bedi and actor Kangana Ranaut. Also present were ALTBalaji Group COO Zulfiqar Khan, MX Media COO Nikhil Gandhi, and MX Player SVP and head – acquisitions Mansi Shrivastav.
The show will be live-streamed 24X7 on both ALTBalaji and MX Player. ALTBalaji will also introduce a fantasy metaverse game based on the reality show. “I am thrilled and excited to be foraying into OTT with such a unique and brilliant concept,” said Kangana Ranaut. “I want to thank Ekta for always being by my side, she has always been someone I admire and respect a lot. I am glad that she is there with me for my OTT debut as well.”
“Lock Upp is being launched on a massive scale and has all the elements that make for an entertaining reality show,” said Ekta R. Kapoor. “The concept of the show is brilliant, and I am sure that it will captivate the viewers and set a new standard for reality shows.”
“MX has always been a market disruptor – our user-first approach to create product and content experiences that appeal to our huge audiences’ segments has made us India’s largest entertainment platform today,” said MX Media CEO Karan Bedi. “Lock Upp is yet another step in disrupting the Indian entertainment ecosystem as it is designed as a digital-first non-fiction offering that will release on a scale that is unprecedented for India.”
“ALTBalaji is proud to be the first in the world to launch a metaverse game that is based on a reality show,” said ALTBalaji Group COO Zulfiqar Khan. “Gaming enthusiasts around the world can explore this fantastic world that we are creating with elements of blockchain and NFTs.”
“At the heart of MX Player’s success lies the ‘global Indian’ consumer and we have constantly been working towards creating content as per consumer preferences, especially given the large user base of over 300 million globally spanning across the US, UK, Middle East Southeast Asia and more that we cater to on our platform,” said MX Media COO Nikhil Gandhi.
“MX Player’s content design focuses on building a bouquet of engaging and entertaining offerings for our diverse audience and the biggest pillar of our content creation philosophy is our partnership with content creators and aggregators,” said MX Player SVP and head – content acquisitions Mansi Shrivastav.
iWorld
Bill Ackman makes a $64bn bid for Universal Music Group
The hedge fund boss wants to list the world’s biggest record label in New York and thinks he knows exactly what ails it
NEW YORK: Bill Ackman wants to buy the world’s biggest record label. Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund run by the billionaire investor, submitted a non-binding proposal on Tuesday to acquire all outstanding shares of Universal Music Group in a business combination transaction worth roughly $64.4 billion (around 55.8 billion euros).
Under the terms of the offer, UMG shareholders would receive 9.4 billion euros in cash, equivalent to 5.05 euros per share, plus 0.77 shares of a newly created company, dubbed New UMG, for each share held. Pershing Square values the total package at 30.40 euros per share, a 78 per cent premium to UMG’s closing price on April 2.
The deal would see UMG merge with Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, with the combined entity incorporating as a Nevada corporation and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. New UMG would publish financial statements under US GAAP and become eligible for S&P 500 index inclusion. Pershing Square says the transaction is expected to close by year-end, with all equity financing backstopped by Ackman’s firm and its affiliates, and all debt financing committed at signing. The transaction would cancel 17 per cent of UMG’s outstanding shares, leaving New UMG with 1.541 billion shares outstanding.
Ackman has a long history with UMG. Pershing Square first bought approximately 10 per cent of the company from Vivendi in the summer of 2021 for around $4 billion, around the time of UMG’s listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. He has since trimmed that position, raising around $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7 per cent stake in March 2025, and resigned from UMG’s board in May 2025, citing new executive and board obligations arising from recent investments.
His diagnosis of UMG’s troubles is blunt. The company’s stock has fallen around 33 per cent over the past twelve months on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, and Ackman lays out six reasons why. These include uncertainty around the Bolloré Group’s 18 per cent stake in the company, the postponement of UMG’s US listing, the underutilisation of UMG’s balance sheet, the absence of a publicly disclosed capital allocation plan and earnings algorithm, a failure to reflect UMG’s 2.7 billion euro stake in Spotify in its valuation, and what Ackman calls suboptimal shareholder investor relations, communications and engagement.
The Bolloré stake has long cast a shadow over the company. Cyrille Bolloré stepped down from UMG’s board in July 2025 as the Bolloré Group battled the French financial markets regulator over its stake in Vivendi, which holds a further capital interest in UMG. UMG had confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2025 for a proposed secondary listing in America, but put those plans on hold in March 2026, citing market conditions.
Ackman has kind words for UMG’s management, at least. “Since UMG’s listing, Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,” he said. But he made his diagnosis plain: “UMG’s stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.”
In other words, Ackman believes UMG is a great business trapped inside a broken structure. If the board agrees, he intends to fix that, loudly and in New York.
