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Aircel, Balaji Telefilms launch interactive & detective mobile series
MUMBAI: Telecom service operator Aircel has partnered with Balaji Telefilms to launch an interactive and detective mobile series, Kriminal Kaun.
The series is introduced by New Media, the digital entity of Balaji Telefilms.
Kriminal Kaun is a series of ‘audiosodes‘, wherein Aircel users can subscribe to this service and listen to the stories in Hindi or Tamil.
The stories focus on mystery – be it murder, kidnap or robbery. There is a fresh series every week like – Crime in Fashion World, The Trap and Wedding Night Murder.
Each series has four episodes, updated daily. In the first episode, the consumers get to hear the story; the second episode focuses on investigation; the third episode is dedicated to subscriber interaction where they get to guess the “Kriminal” in the series and in the fourth episode, the detective inspector Avinash solves the crime.
The detective series is available to all Aircel voice users for Rs 30 per month as subscription and for 10 paise per minute.
Said Aircel COO Gurdeep Singh, “We have partnered with Balaji Telefilms to offer our consumers a thrilling and entertaining experience with the first ever interactive and detective daily audio series on your mobile phone in India.”
Added Balaji Telefilms Group CEO Puneet Kinra, “Considering the busy lifestyles of Indian consumers, we decided to offer entertainment on the move. With these ‘audiosodes‘, mobile entertainment will no longer be restricted to gaming and music. This is the first time that an interactive daily detective series has been introduced to cellular phone users in India, and we look forward to creating more such creative content.”
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
