JioStar eyes bold stories, Gen Z and future of entertainment

JioStar boasts 800 million viewers on television and another 400 million streaming users on JioHotstar

- Gaurav Laghate

In a world of 15-second videos and fractured attention spans, getting an audience to commit to a three-hour film is, in the words of JioStar Entertainment's Alok Jain, "a big ask." But rather than chase scale for its own sake, India's newest content powerhouse is betting on something more enduring: bold, emotionally resonant storytelling—and its youngest viewers.

At the Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit (APOS) 2025 in Bali, Jain, who heads entertainment at JioStar, and Krishnan Kutty, the firm's head of content and platforms, laid out a vision for India's next phase of content growth—one that places creators, not platforms, at the centre of a rapidly evolving media ecosystem.

"In a country as creatively diverse as India, it's no longer just about scaling content. It's about resetting the creative ecosystem," Jain said during a fireside chat with Media Partners Asia's Vivek Couto. "Our role is not to act as gatekeepers but as collaborators."