Disney+ Hotstar to stream new original ‘Ghar Waapsi’ on 22 July

NEW DELHI: Disney+ Hotstar will stream a new original called Ghar Waapsi, on 22 July. A Dice Media creation, the show stars Vishal Vashishtha, Atul Shrivastava and Vibha Chibber.

Having lost the rights to live-stream Indian Premier League matches for the next five years, Disney+ Hotstar is going all out to beef up its entertainment content and prevent subscribers from leaving the platform.

The Walt Disney-owned streaming service is buying big-ticket films and bringing fresh web originals to the platform. Earlier this month, Hotstar premiered Kamal Haasan’s latest Tamil hit Vikram, which it acquired for an estimated ₹100 crore.

The platform is ramping up its slate of south Indian films and web shows and will bank on its international originals, including those from Marvel, dubbed in multiple languages to woo young audiences, media analysts said.

One of them had earlier estimated that the platform might lose up to 50% of its paid subscribers as IPL moves to Reliance-owned platforms. In its May earnings call, Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Walt Disney Co., said the platform has about 500 shows in the pipeline for local content outside of the English-speaking market, including 100 for India.

Apart from the latest international original Ms Marvel, which premiered in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, Hotstar has announced the third season of its crime thriller Aarya, starring Sushmita Sen; Telugu political drama Parampara; and a show with YouTuber Bhuvan Bam titled Taaza Khabar.

Gaurav Banerjee, head, content, Disney+ Hotstar and HSM (Hindi-speaking markets) entertainment network, Disney Star India, had said in an earlier interview that the platform has received “phenomenal response” for its regional, as well as dubbed international, titles. “With language no longer being a barrier to accessing compelling content, we aim to create various avenues for content discovery across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam to keep our audiences engaged at all times. We will continue to focus on South Indian content as we bring to our audiences exciting titles," he had said.