iWorld
Ormax Reveals India’s top 50 streaming shows of 2025
MUMBAI: If 2025 had a remote control, India clearly knew where to point it. From spy thrillers and small-town comedies to reality television and global blockbusters, streaming audiences watched widely and decisively, according to Ormax Media’s latest Top 50 Streaming Originals in India report.
Topping the list is Special Ops S2 on JioHotstar, which pulled in a formidable 29.6 million viewers, reaffirming the nation’s enduring appetite for high-stakes espionage. Close on its heels were courtroom drama Criminal Justice: A Family Matter and the ever-controversial Ek Badnaam Aashram S3 Part 2, proving that familiar franchises still pack serious pulling power.
Prime Video continued its strong run with The Family Man S3 and Panchayat S4, shows that could not be more different in tone but share one crucial trait: deep emotional investment from viewers. Netflix, meanwhile, balanced homegrown hits such as Delhi Crime S3 and The Royals with global juggernauts like Stranger Things S5 and Squid Game S3, both of which found massive audiences in India.
Reality television refused to stay in the background. Bigg Boss Hindi S19 cracked the top ten, while formats such as Shark Tank India S4, The Great Indian Kapil Show S3 and The Traitors showed that unscripted content is no longer a side dish on streaming menus.
Yet beyond the rankings lies a bigger story. This is the final year Ormax Media will publish a standalone Originals list. From 2026, the company’s new StreamView framework will track everything together, from OTT originals and television programming to films, sports and news. The change reflects a simple truth: viewers no longer care where content comes from, only whether it is worth watching.
Based on weekly nationwide research that counts real viewers rather than accounts, the report offers a clear snapshot of how India streamed in 2025. It also quietly marks the end of an era, as the lines between originals, films and television blur into one crowded, competitive screen.
In short, India watched a lot, watched widely, and watched on its own terms. The labels may be changing, but the binge is very much on.
iWorld
Talk to your telly: JioHotstar’s new AI voice feature reads your mood to suggest shows
The streaming giant ditches the scroll for a “conversational” AI that understands moods, cricket and Hinglish
MUMBAI: The era of the endless scroll may finally be over. JioHotstar has officially flicked the switch on its “Conversational Voice Discovery” (CVD) feature, a high-tech overhaul designed to turn the hunt for a Friday night film into a natural chat. Developed in a landmark partnership with OpenAI, the tool moves beyond clunky keyword searches, allowing users to find content by describing their mood, context or even the most bizarre viewing scenarios.
The feature is vision of Uday Shankar, vice chairman of JioStar, whose goal is to eliminate “content overload” by replacing the tedious, traditional scroll with natural dialogue. By leveraging ChatGPT’s ability to grasp context and cultural nuance, the new mobile interface allows users to bypass menus entirely, turning search into a seamless conversation.
The launch, which rolled out across India this month, sees a ChatGPT-powered interface integrated directly into the heart of the app. Instead of typing “action movie” into a sterile search bar, viewers can now speak to their devices as if they were asking a well-read friend for a tip. For now, the feature is exclusive to the mobile app, with a rollout for Connected TV (CTV) expected in later phases.
Beyond the keyword
The CVD feature is built on what JioStar calls “Multilingual Cognitive Search.” It is designed to interpret nuance rather than just matching text. If you tell the app, “I’ve had a long day, give me something mindless and funny,” it won’t just look for those words in a title; it will sift through 300,000 hours of library content to find a light-hearted sitcom or a stand-up special that fits the vibe.
The tech is natively multilingual, catering to India’s diverse linguistic landscape. Users can switch effortlessly between languages—asking for “Koi light-hearted comedy dikhao” (show me some light-hearted comedy) or requesting a “Thriller hai but zyada dark nahi chahiye” (a thriller that isn’t too dark).
Real-time curiosity and live sports
Perhaps the most ambitious aspect of the rollout is its integration with live sports. During a high-stakes cricket match, the AI acts as a digital companion. Fans can ask, “Who is the top scorer right now?” or “Show me that last wicket again,” and the system will pull the relevant data or clips instantly. It even attempts to explain the “why” behind the crowd’s energy, responding to prompts like, “Why is everyone reacting like that?” by contextualizing on-field events.
A shift in streaming strategy
The move is part of a broader reimagining of the entertainment experience following the massive merger between JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. Uday Shankar noted that the goal is to make premium entertainment “truly accessible” by embedding AI at the core of the user journey. By anticipating culture and context, the platform hopes to kill off “decision fatigue.”
For OpenAI, the partnership represents a major play in the Indian market. Fidji Simo, the head of applications at OpenAI, said the goal was to turn a “one-way” passive consumption experience into a “deeply personal conversation.”
As the feature goes live for millions of subscribers, the message from Bombay House is clear: the remote control is becoming obsolete. Whether you’re looking for a show that “feels like a rainy Sunday afternoon” or a crime series with a “strong female lead but not too violent,” all you have to do is ask.
