Mumbai: In a world of 15-second movies and fractured consideration spans, getting an viewers to decide to a three-hour movie is, within the phrases of JioStar Leisure’s Alok Jain, “a giant ask.” However fairly than chase scale for its personal sake, India’s latest content material powerhouse is betting on one thing extra enduring: daring, emotionally resonant storytelling—and its youngest viewers.
On the Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit (APOS) 2025 in Bali, Jain, who heads leisure at JioStar, and Krishnan Kutty, the agency’s head of cluster, Leisure (South), laid out a imaginative and prescient for India’s subsequent section of content material progress—one which locations creators, not platforms, on the centre of a quickly evolving media ecosystem.
“In a rustic as creatively various as India, it’s now not nearly scaling content material. It’s about resetting the artistic ecosystem,” Jain stated throughout a fireplace chat with Media Companions Asia’s Vivek Couto. “Our position is to not act as gatekeepers however as collaborators.”
And daring, in JioStar’s vocabulary, doesn’t imply flashy units or massive budgets. It means difficult societal norms, amplifying underrepresented voices, and telling tales that resonate deeply throughout India’s different however emotionally unified viewers.
As Kutty put it, “We’re not in California. Our job is to take the viewers together with us, whilst we problem conference.”
The executives emphasised that right now’s creators aren’t certain by conventional codecs or distribution mediums. From short-form video to long-form streaming dramas, from social-first storytelling to community tv, creators are more and more transferring seamlessly throughout platforms. JioStar, they stated, is working to construct constructions that assist this artistic mobility.
“We’re constructing mechanisms that permit creators to evolve with their voice and cross over throughout mediums,” Jain famous.
Backed by the heft of Reliance’s media infrastructure, JioStar boasts an enormous distribution footprint—over 800 million viewers on tv and one other 400 million streaming customers on JioHotstar. That attain is now being aligned with a technique that emphasizes flexibility, emotional depth, and regional storytelling.
In keeping with Kutty, India’s digital video panorama now contains between 500–600 million customers, every consuming 4 to 5 hours of content material day by day. That range, he added, shouldn’t be a constraint—however a artistic edge.
“Each state, each area is a supply of recent views and storytelling potential,” he stated. “A small state like Kerala, for instance, creates tales that journey throughout the nation—80% of Malayalam content material consumption on our platform comes from outdoors the state.”
JioStar’s mannequin is rooted within the perception that whereas codecs, languages, and geographies might differ, emotional resonance binds Indian audiences. Jain pointed to Thukra Ke Mera Pyaar, a 19-episode digital drama that includes a debut director and solid, as a latest breakout success.
“It labored as a result of the story labored. We should return to first ideas—not simply to innovate in tales but in addition in codecs,” he stated, including that the corporate is exploring micro-dramas, non-fiction codecs, and different experimental constructions.
Kutty famous that daring storytelling right now means addressing social complexity inside the Indian context—not counting on spectacle. He cited a latest present that includes a flawed, short-tempered protagonist grappling with post-Covid id points. The sequence has since climbed to the highest of the platform’s charts and is being tailored in a number of Indian languages.
Betting on Gen Z—and making it sustainable
Wanting forward, JioStar is putting a deliberate wager on India’s youth. Whereas acknowledging that MTV has led the best way in Gen Z programming lately, Kutty stated the broader business has did not cater to this cohort adequately.
“For the South, we’re dedicated to growing our Gen Z programming quantity by 7 to 10 instances,” he stated.
Jain agreed, however added that chasing youth audiences should even be economically viable.
“If the business is to run sustainably, we should drive innovation profitably—and specializing in youth is central to that.”
The executives had been candid in regards to the broader financial challenges going through India’s content material business. Streaming, Kutty stated, is locked in a “damaged mannequin.”
“We’ve escalated costs and seen manufacturing prices spike, however shopper demand hasn’t saved tempo. Producers have grow to be B2B gamers—serving platforms, not viewers. That disconnect must be addressed.”
Jain expressed comparable considerations about theatrical content material.
“Individuals gained’t go to theatres except the content material is phenomenal. Watching a movie is a three-hour dedication in an period of 15-second leisure. That’s a giant ask,” he stated. “Theatres must evolve—by way of pricing, expertise, and worth supply.”
Regardless of structural headwinds, each executives remained optimistic in regards to the long-term outlook for Indian content material. With a younger inhabitants, 22 official languages, and what Jain known as an “openness to vary,” India stays a high-potential marketplace for each home and world media gamers.
“Genuine storytelling, powered by native emotion however constructed to scale—that’s what we consider will carry Indian content material ahead,” stated Jain. “And we have now barely scratched the floor.”
