iWorld
ZEE5 deepens its presence in Malaysia with Celcom in partnership with Apigate
MUMBAI: In a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer-ZEE5 Global announced ZEE5’s partnership with Celcom, Malaysia’s premier and most experienced telecom operator.
This partnership will provide Celcom customers a secure and convenient payment mode, through Apigate’s Direct Carrier Billing API, to subscribe to ZEE5’s rich content bouquet.
ZEE5, which is a part of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) offers 100,000 hours of Indian Movies, TV Shows, News, Videos and exclusive Originals, across 12 languages including Hindi, English, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri and Gujarati. It also offers 60+ popular Live TV channels, including ZEE’s best loved channels.
This collaboration brings the range of ZEE5’s exciting content, including top Tamil TV Shows like Sembaruthi, Poove Poochoodava and Yaaradi Nee Mohini, ZEE5 Tamil Originals including Kallachirippu, America Mapillai and D7 as well as recent blockbusters like Mersal and Kalavu to Celcom customers. The bouquet also includes Bollywood blockbusters like Kedarnath and Veere Di Wedding as well as dubbed Originals like Abhay (Kunal Kemmu), Final Call (Arjun Rampal) and Rangbaaz (Saqib Saleem).
“We have an extremely aggressive global rollout plan charted out for ZEE5 over the next fiscal and ensuring we have the most relevant partnerships in place is a key element of that. Malaysia is a high focus market for us, given its huge affinity for Indian and South Asian content and growing appetite for online video content. We will soon be launching content in international languages too including Malay, and we are extremely glad to partner with a key local operator like Celcom to jointly grow the opportunity in this market,“ said Amit Goenka, CEO, ZEE International and Z5 Global
“As we rapidly expand our partnerships across the Globe, we’re happy to announce Celcom as our first partnership in the South East Asian region. We’re already seeing a strong response in Malaysia, and partnering with a leading telecom operator like Celcom will enable us to quickly scale up awareness and access to ZEE5 among their huge customer base,” adds Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer- ZEE5 Global
Zoran Vasiljev, Chief Executive Officer, Apigate said, “Online Video streaming is a booming opportunity and we are excited to partner with a fast-growing platform like ZEE5 to enable their global expansion starting with Celcom in Malaysia”
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.
