iWorld
Voot Select reveals its sixth original – Crackdown
KOLKATA: Voot Select is all set to reveal their latest Original – Crackdown. Home to critically acclaimed shows like Asur, Raikar Case, The Gone Game, Voot Select will now have ace Bollywood director Apoorva Lakhia making his directorial web debut with this action-packed espionage thriller. Crackdown boasts of a fantastic ensemble cast including Saqib Saleem, Iqbal Khan, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Waluscha De Sousa, Rajesh Tailang, and Ankur Bhatia amongst others. The eight-part series goes live on Voot Select on 23 September 2020.
A slick, high-octane thriller, Crackdown, revolves around a covert operations wing that tries to crack through multiple smaller decoys, to uncover a larger conspiracy that threatens national security. In the process, they find an able ally in a girl whose identity remains a mystery. As seen in the trailer, B-town was buzzing with excitement as the first look of the show that was announced by none other than Superstar and the ‘Shehenshah’ of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan. Brimming with high octane action sequences, powerful visuals, and a spectacular cast, Crackdown boasts of the grandeur and scale that Apoorva Lakhia’s directorial web debut one would expect will offer.
Voot Select, Viacom18 youth, music, and english entertainment head Ferzad Palia said, “Voot Select has in a very short span of time, become synonymous with great quality Originals and curated content. Now we are all set and extremely excited to launch our sixth Original – Crackdown. Apoorva is known to make the most stylish and slick thrillers and has created magic with what he has done in the show Crackdown. It’s an edge of the seat thriller with lots of action which is sure to be nothing short of a big Bollywood blockbuster experience brought to the OTT world.”
Apoorva Lakhia said, "I have always loved making action thrillers. It gives me an adrenaline rush just being a part of those sequences and locations. Needless to say, when I read the script written by Chintan Gandhi and Suresh Nair, I was extremely excited. The storyline is great, its action-packed, with great locations and a stellar cast and it is going to stream on one of the biggest digital platforms in the country, Voot Select. What more can one need? Although this is my directorial debut for an OTT platform, the treatment of Crackdown is exactly like a Bollywood blockbuster and I am sure the audience is going to love it as much as we enjoyed making it.”
Gunshots, chase sequences, blasts, and the constant hand combat, Crackdown is packed with all the right elements that should put it on the top of your binge-watch list.
Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
