iWorld
Orange Alert as Media Chiefs Call Time on Sour Regulation
MUMBAI: When your brightest industry minds start comparing creativity to citrus fruit, you know the discussion’s got some zest. At FICCI FRAMES 2025, the session titled “Regulating the Orange Economy: Past, Present, and Future” turned into a spirited masterclass on what’s holding back India’s most vibrant export creativity itself.
Moderated by Koan Advisory’s Vivan Sharan, the panel brought together some of the sharpest voices in Indian broadcasting Avinash Pandey (CEO, Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation), Krishnan Kutty, head of cluster, Entertainment (South) – JioStar, Anil Malhotra (COO, Zee Media), and Yatin Gupta (COO, GTPL Hathway). Together, they dissected the bitter-sweet evolution of India’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry from its liberalisation glory days to today’s tangled web of red tape and regulation.
Avinash Pandey kicked things off with a nostalgic rewind. “We were declared an industry in 1996, and for a brief while, we were actually treated like one,” he said dryly, drawing laughter from the crowd. He recounted how the early 2000s saw broadcasting boom as a sunrise sector driven by investment, private innovation, and minimal interference.
“Then came a time when the government helped us grow,” he continued. “But today, every little aspect from pricing to packaging is regulated. We are living under a 2005 framework in a 2025 economy.”
Pandey’s lament set the tone. The orange economy shorthand for industries fuelled by creativity and culture has turned ripe, but over-regulation, panelists warned, risks turning it sour.
Krishnan Kutty of JioStar took the baton, calling for “a lighter hand and a smarter head” in policymaking. He drew a sharp comparison between legacy broadcasters and digital-first platforms. “Television is capped, controlled, and scrutinised. OTT platforms, meanwhile, stream what they want with almost no oversight,” he said.
Kutty argued that the answer isn’t to regulate the new, but to liberate the old. “Over-prescription kills innovation. Consumers don’t need protection from choice they need access to more of it.” His words echoed across an audience that included broadcasters, policymakers, and streaming executives all trying to decode the new power balance between screens.
Anil Malhotra from Zee Media added historical perspective and a dose of irony. “Cable TV arrived in India in 1985. It was regulated only in 1995. Broadcasting began in 2005, got regulated much later,” he said. “Regulation always comes late to the party and then overstays its welcome.”
Malhotra argued that in a digital-first world, it makes no sense to hold traditional media hostage to older rulebooks. “If the government doesn’t regulate new tech like OTT and AI, it must deregulate the old. Otherwise, you’re penalising the legacy systems that built India’s media strength in the first place.”
He also called for a “policy audit,” a comprehensive review of old broadcasting rules to identify those that have outlived their relevance. “We need regulation that enables, not restricts,” he stressed.
GTPL Hathway’s Yatin Gupta brought the discussion closer to ground reality and homes still running on coaxial cables. “We’re the most regulated part of the media chain,” he said bluntly. “Every rate, every fee, every package is dictated. Yet, we’re expected to compete with digital platforms that face no such limits.”
Gupta pointed out that India’s cable homes have dropped from 150 million a few years ago to around 100 million today, a staggering 30 per cent loss in a market still hungry for affordable entertainment. “We can’t evolve if we’re boxed in,” he added. “If the aim is to take India fully digital, we must support the legacy infrastructure that connects Bharat to the world.”
He called for skill development, broadband integration, and hybrid models that let cable operators transform into full-fledged digital service providers. “If we don’t, we’ll end up with an uneven playing field and an excluded audience.”
By the time Avinash Pandey took the mic again, his tone had sharpened. “Regulators talk about ‘orderly growth’,” he said with a knowing smile. “That’s a Soviet-era phrase. You can’t dictate how creativity grows, it defeats the very nature of innovation.”
He urged policymakers to think of the media sector as a living organism, one that thrives on unpredictability. “Creativity doesn’t follow command-and-control models. It needs chaos, experimentation, and freedom to fail.”
The audience broke into applause when he declared, “If you want free markets, let the market breathe.”
Despite the fiery debate, the panel didn’t write television off. Far from it. “TV still delivers high-quality entertainment at the lowest cost per viewer,” Pandey noted. “There are over 100 million Indians yet to own a television. Growth is far from over but it will stall if innovation is strangled.”
The panellists agreed that the future of India’s media sector lies in convergence television and digital not competing, but coexisting. With global streamers investing heavily in Indian stories and regional content booming across states, the creative economy stands at a crossroads.
As the discussion wound down, what emerged was less of a gripe and more of a roadmap: deregulate the old, modernise the law, empower talent, and let creativity not bureaucracy set the tone.
In a nation bursting with storytellers, artists, and innovators, the message was clear: the Orange Economy shouldn’t be juiced dry by rules made for an analogue age.
If India truly wants to be a global creative powerhouse exporting not just IT services but imagination, it must give its creators the same freedom its coders enjoy. Or as one delegate quipped while leaving the hall, “You can’t make lemonade with red tape.”
iWorld
Why Peaky Blinders is one of television’s biggest hits that still deserves more attention
Six seasons, multiple awards and the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man bring the Shelby saga back into the spotlight
In the crowded universe of streaming content, only a handful of shows manage to leave a lasting cultural footprint. Peaky Blinders is overwhelmingly considered one of the biggest global hits of the past decade. Yet many viewers still haven’t fully explored the dark, gripping world of the Shelby family.
Originally produced for the UK’s BBC and later finding a massive global audience through Netflix, the series quietly grew from a British period drama into a worldwide streaming phenomenon.
Created by Steven Knight, the show follows the rise of the Shelby crime family in post-First World War Birmingham. What begins as a gritty street-gang story gradually expands into a sweeping narrative about ambition, politics, power and survival.
At the centre of the saga is Thomas Shelby, portrayed with extraordinary depth by Cillian Murphy. The casting of Murphy is widely regarded as perfect for the role. With piercing eyes, restrained dialogue and an almost hypnotic screen presence, he transforms Shelby into one of the most unforgettable characters in modern screen storytelling.
Murphy’s brilliance lies in his restraint. He rarely shouts or performs theatrically. Instead, a quiet stare, a calculated pause or a subtle shift in expression conveys the emotional storms within the character. Beneath the ruthless gang leader is a war veteran carrying trauma, guilt and loneliness. Murphy captures this complexity with remarkable precision, making Thomas Shelby both terrifying and deeply human.
Beyond its central performance, Peaky Blinders stands out for its unfiltered portrayal of reality. The show does not romanticise crime. Instead, it exposes the harsh social conditions of early 20th-century Britain, from poverty and class struggle to political extremism and the psychological scars left by war.
The series also presents powerful female characters who hold their own within the Shelby empire. Polly Gray, played by Helen McCrory, is the strategic backbone of the family and one of the most formidable figures in the story. Women in the series shape decisions, influence power structures and challenge the rigid social norms of the time.
Across six seasons, the narrative grows dramatically in scale. What begins in the smoky streets of Birmingham evolves into a story involving political conspiracies, fascism and international criminal networks.
The series has also earned significant critical acclaim. It won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2018 and multiple National Television Awards for Best Drama, cementing its reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated modern shows.
Another defining feature of the series is its iconic music. The show’s opening theme, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, became instantly recognisable and widely associated with the Shelby universe. Combined with a powerful soundtrack featuring artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the music helped shape the show’s dark, stylish identity and became hugely popular among fans.
And the Shelby story is not over yet.
In fact, its legacy is unfolding right now. The long-awaited feature-length continuation, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, was released on March 6, 2026, bringing the Shelby universe from streaming screens to cinemas and giving fans a new chapter in the saga.
For viewers who have not yet stepped into this world, the timing could not be better.
Six gripping seasons are ready to binge on Netflix. A new film has just arrived in theatres. And at the heart of it all stands one of the most magnetic performances in modern drama by Cillian Murphy.
So if Peaky Blinders has been sitting on your watchlist for years, this weekend is your moment.
So, by order of the Peaky fookin’ Blinders, consider this your cue to finally step into the ruthless world of Thomas Shelby. Pour yourself a drink, clear your schedule and press the play button. Because when the Peaky Blinders give an order, you listen.
