Television
Asianet launches 10-day Onam special, OG Onam
JioStar’s Malayalam flagship wagers that old-fashioned family telly still beats the algorithm
Onam is back, and so is the fiercest real estate war in Malayali living rooms: the remote control. Asianet, JioStar’s Kerala powerhouse, has thrown down its festive gauntlet with “OG Onam”, a 10-day programming assault built on a simple, almost contrarian bet, that in an age of scrolling and streaming, nothing beats a family huddled around one screen for a shared Onasadya of entertainment.
The campaign, unveiled in Mumbai on 14th August 2026, is less a schedule than a manifesto. Each of the ten days carries its own theme, stitched around the festival’s oldest rituals, the first Pookkalam, Mahabali’s homecoming, the sadya shared with loved ones. It is nostalgia marketing at its most calculated, and also, refreshingly, at its most sincere.
The real firepower sits in the premieres. Prathichaya opens the innings, followed by Mollywood Times, pitched as 2026’s most anticipated coming-of-age story. Vazha 2 brings an emotionally grounded comedy drama, while Mohiniyattam returns with a comedy sequel that had all of Kerala in splits the first time round. The marquee name, though, is Drishyam 3, crowning the lineup and doing the heavy lifting on hype alone. Franchise sequels are the safest bet in Indian television right now, and Asianet knows it.
Non-fiction gets equal billing. Bigg Boss Agnipareeksha will anchor the high-voltage reality slot through the season, while Onaruchimelam and Onakalavara lean into the culinary heart of Onam, serving up the flavours that make the festival what it is. Add the grand finale of Star Singer Season 10 on 30th August, a chat show pairing Prithviraj and the Khalifa team with chef Pillai, and festive specials of Chempaneerpoovu, Patharamattu and Mazhathorum Munpe, and the channel has essentially built a ten-day festival within a festival.
Krishnan Kutty, head, entertainment business, south cluster, JioStar, framed the play well. For generations, he said, Onam and Asianet have been inseparable in Malayali homes, and this year’s push honours that legacy while giving advertisers a stage combining scale with emotional resonance. That last bit is the real story here. Fragmented viewership has made appointment television scarce and expensive to sell, so a ten-day, theme-a-day festival calendar is as much an advertising product as a content one, a rare window where reach and sentiment arrive together.
The gamble is straightforward. Streaming has splintered Malayali audiences the way it has splintered everyone else, yet festivals remain the one occasion families still watch together, on one set, at one time. Asianet is wagering that this old habit is strong enough to pull eyeballs back from individual phones for ten days a year, and dressing the wager in enough starpower, from Mohanlal-adjacent franchise sequels to reality television spectacle, that the bet feels safe.
If it works, “OG Onam” will not just be a ratings win. It will be a template for how legacy broadcasters fight streaming, not by chasing algorithms but by doubling down on the one thing platforms cannot replicate, a shared festival, watched together, the old way.
