iWorld
Watcho announces “The Morning Show” featuring Ali Asgar & Siddharth Sagar
Mumbai: The OTT platform, Watcho has announced an original series The Morning Show, a light-hearted comedy web series showcasing content in a format that is innovative, fresh, and out of the box.
Known for bringing snackable content #Funfatafat, Watcho’s new web series The Morning Show is releasing on 20 May in Hindi.
The Morning Show is a one-of-a-kind character-oriented show conceptualized by Manoj Sabharwal and produced by Team Creative Mafiaa.
The show will feature Ali Asgar and Siddharth Sagar of Kapil Sharma show fame, Vanshika Sharma, Parree Pande, Rahul Grover, Mukesh Sharma, and Nazish Mann.
The show revolves around the individuals that go to the gym every day. The CCTV camera snooping on the gym members is a key protagonist in the entire story. The protagonist, the amusing characters, and the daily chaos at the gym make the show hilarious and entertaining to watch. Watcho’s new web series has 9-episodes, each lasting a 20-minutes duration.
From a gym owner who is a struggling actor to a receptionist who is always on the phone or an affluent married couple trying to maintain their class at the gym; each character has a unique personality and amusing quirk.
Commenting on the launch, DishTV India, DishTV & Watcho head- marketing Sukhpreet Singh said, “Comedy continues to resonate with our growing audience base and we are confident that the format of ‘The Morning Show’ which is fresh and engaging will make the viewers laugh out loud. Humour comes in many flavours and ‘The Morning Show’ will give a taste of everything, making it an all-in-all family entertainer.”
Bringing in a unique assortment of snackable content cutting across all genres, Watcho offers many original shows including web series like Bauchare-E-Ishq, Happy, Gupta Niwas, Jaunpur, Papa Ka Scooter, Aghaat, Cheaters – The Vacation, Sarhad, Mystery Dad, JaalSaazi, Dark Destinations, It’s My Pleasure, 4 Thieves, Love Crisis, Ardhsatya, Chhoriyan, and Rakhta Chandana along with also having original influencer shows like Look I Can Cook and Bikhare hain Alfaaz.
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
