Hungama enters long-form original programming in regional languages

Digital entertainment company Hungama has announced its foray into long-form original programming in regional languages, featuring original shows across different genres in over six Indian languages, including Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi and Bengali. Beginning with a Marathi show called ‘Padded ki Pushup’, Hungama will soon roll out additional original shows across different languages over the course of the year.

The regional shows will be available on Hungama Play, Hungama’s video-on-demand platform, and will benefit from the company’s strong distribution network and reach an audience of over 50 million in India and 10 million in international markets. Hungama’s strategic association with Xiaomi will enable consumers to watch the shows via Hungama Play on Mi Video and Mi TV. The shows will also be available through Hungama Play on Vodafone Play, Idea Movies & TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick and other Android TVs.

Neeraj Roy

Speaking about the regional foray, Neeraj Roy, Managing Director and CEO, Hungama Digital Media, said, “Over 48% of our users consume non-Hindi content and we have seen a tremendous demand from this audience for differentiated stories. Our regional shows will focus on offering our users strong, contemporary narratives that not only resonate with a language-specific audience but also have a universal appeal. We intend to launch six to seven non-Hindi shows in the next nine months and are certain that this will help us increase our user base by almost 30%.”

Currently under production, Padded ki Pushup (Marathi) will be Hungama’s first regional show. A comedy series, the show will revolve around the life of Ashish Shinde, a newly married man who gets hired as a lingerie salesman. He must try to succeed at work and at the same time, keep the nature of his work hidden from his wife and nosy mother-in-law. Produced by Hungama Digital Media and Café Marathi, and directed by Akash Gursale, the show’s cast are famous names of the Marathi entertainment industry — Aniket Vishwasrao, Tejashree Pradhan and Kishori Ambiye.

Through its original content in regional languages, Hungama will focus on locally-relevant, yet universally appealing stories that can be appreciated by audience across different age groups, genders and geographies.

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