iWorld
Vodafone Idea launches Vi Games in partnership with Nazara Technologies
Mumbai: Vodafone Idea on Monday announced its foray into mobile gaming with the launch of Vi Games in partnership with Nazara Technologies. This will be the first phase of the company’s entry into the gaming space with subsequent expansion into esports, social gaming, streaming, and cloud gaming.
Vi Games will be a destination within the Vi App and will offer more than 1200+ mobile games across ten genres to Vi customers in HTML5 and Android format. Vi Games has a massive catalogue of titles to choose from out of which 80 per cent are exclusively available on Vi App. While 27 per cent of the portfolio has free games, at an additional fee, prepaid and postpaid customers can access premium and super-premium games.
Nazara Technologies have come on board as a technology partner and will support Vi Games by bringing its experience, competency and diversity of titles in mobile gaming. The company operates in 75 countries and has partnered with 50 telecom operators.
Casual gaming is a Rs 6,000 crore market in India growing at 40 per cent CAGR in the last two years. It is expected to grow by an additional 30 per cent in the coming two years to touch Rs 17,000 crore in value. The majority of gaming consumption in India happens via mobile devices which accounts for 95 per cent of consumption. There are about 400 million casual games in India which is expected to cross 650 million users by 2025. Globally, gaming accounts for 70 per cent of mobile consumer spending.
“We are seeing a significant uptake of gaming consumption in India with more than 95 per cent of gaming enthusiasts using the mobile device to enjoy a wide variety of content,” said Vodafone Idea chief marketing officer Avneesh Khosla. “Deeper penetration of smartphones and 4G availability has led to meteoric growth and adoption of gaming content making it a popular choice for fun and entertainment.”
“While GenZ was driving the first wave of adoption in gaming, recent growth is far more encompassing,” said Khosla. “Women account for 43 per cent of gamers in India and 50 per cent of women gamers are above the age of 34. Gaming attracts a diverse mix of cohorts regardless of age, gender and geography.
“We see gaming as a major focus area of our digital content strategy and we intend to build a comprehensive play encompassing most facets of gaming with the aim of establishing Vi as a preferred destination for both, casual as well as serious gamers,” he added.
“Gaming is not only the future of entertainment in India but already a key mode of entertainment for hundreds of millions of Indians playing games on their mobile phones every day,” said Nazara Technologies founder and group MD Nitish Mittersain. “Nazara is delighted to work with Vi to bring our entire portfolio of gaming content, esports and interactive entertainment to their larger user base.”
The average Indian mobile user consumes an average of 16 Gb of data per month which is 60 per cent higher than the industry average at 9 Gb. Indians now spend one-third of their waking hours on mobile devices and at least three fourth Indians have played one mobile game.
“In the last two decades, we have seen a dramatic change in the macro factors like penetration of mobile devices and cheap data that have helped make India a global giant in gaming,’ noted Mittersain. “Today gaming is reaching across demographics and there is a lot of opportunity to collaborate.”
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.
