Vishnu Mohta on how Hoichoi is pushing creative boundaries for regional supremacy

For Bengalis, storytelling is more than just entertainment—it’s an emotional connection and a celebration of culture. As India’s biggest vernacular OTT platform, Hoichoi has been leading this revolution, delivering high-quality content that resonates with Bengali audiences across the globe. Backed by SVF, eastern India’s largest entertainment conglomerate, Hoichoi continues to redefine digital storytelling while staying rooted in its cultural legacy.

With its ambitious 2025-26 content slate, "Golper Parbon 1432," Hoichoi is gearing up for a landmark year, unveiling over 20 new web series and multiple World Premiere films. This initiative also marks SVF’s 30-year journey, reinforcing its commitment to pushing the boundaries of both digital and theatrical entertainment. Additionally, Hoichoi TV+ and Hoichoi Mini Series are set to expand the platform’s reach, catering to younger demographics and those preferring bite-sized content.

In an exclusive conversation with Adully, Vishnu Mohta, Co-Founder, hoichoi, speaks about the OTT platform’s vision for Golper Parbon 1432 and its role in strengthening hoichoi’s positioning. He shared insights on the 2025-26 content slate, the evolving demands of a global Bengali audience, and hoichoi’s hybrid business strategy, which integrates OTT, theatrical releases, and branded storytelling to drive sustained growth.

Mohta also speaks about hoichoi Studios’ expanding theatrical footprint, the balance between OTT and big-screen releases, and hoichoi TV+ as a disruptive alternative to traditional TV. Additionally, Mohta speaks about the growth of regional OTT platforms and hoichoi’s strategy to expand beyond Bengali content while staying true to its core identity.

How do you envision Golper Parbon 1432 to further strengthen hoichoi’s positioning? Just curious – what does the number 1432 stand for?

Golper Parbon 1432 was a landmark event for both SVF and hoichoi, marking one of our most ambitious and diverse content slates to date. This year, hoichoi has unveiled a stellar lineup of web series, spanning across genres and featuring some of our biggest franchises. Additionally, SVF has announced marquee films, including much-anticipated sequels, further solidifying our presence in the industry. We are also expanding into new categories, such as hoichoi TV+, to enhance our audience’s viewing experience. Furthermore, hoichoi Studios will focus on producing digital-friendly films that are equally well-suited for theatrical releases, ensuring a seamless blend of storytelling across platforms.

As of “1432”, it represents the upcoming Bengali year, spanning from April 2025 to March 2026 according to the Bengali calendar. We are entering the 1432nd Bengali year, thus, Golper Parbon 1432 celebrates Bengali storytelling across platforms for the upcoming year.

hoichoi has been a pioneer in the Bengali OTT space. With the 2025-26 slate, how do you see the platform evolving to meet the demands of a global Bengali audience?

With our 2025-26 slate, hoichoi is set to evolve further by expanding content volume and introducing innovations that cater to a wider audience. One of our key focus areas is TV+, where we aim to engage viewers who enjoy watching television serials. While we’ve explored this genre before, we’re now increasing episode counts and adopting multi-week releases to build a viewing habit, creating a whole new segment for hoichoi.

Additionally, hoichoi Studios is bringing a strong lineup of theatrical releases, reinforcing our commitment to high-quality storytelling across formats. With these initiatives, we are not just growing our content slate but also redefining how Bengali audiences consume entertainment, both in India and globally.

hoichoi is accelerating its hybrid business strategy, integrating OTT, theatrical releases, and branded storytelling. How will this strategy drive sustained growth? Could you give us some revenue targets?

Our hybrid strategy is built on a deep understanding of audience preferences and market trends. Hoichoi Studios was born out of the need to tell stories that deserve a big-screen experience. Theatrical releases not only generate buzz and reviews before a film arrives on hoichoi but can also elevate its perception among audiences.

Similarly, branded storytelling allows us to integrate brand messages seamlessly within engaging narratives, creating a win-win for both audiences and advertisers. This also enables us to offer a free content tier for brand customers, expanding our reach. By strategically balancing OTT, theatrical, and branded content, we are building a sustainable growth model that enhances audience engagement and opens new revenue streams.

SVF is celebrating 30 years in the industry. How has your content strategy transformed over the years, and what new benchmarks are you aiming for in the next decade?

SVF has remained as relevant today as it was 30 years ago because we have continuously evolved with time while staying true to our core—our passion for storytelling. What has never changed is our commitment to bringing compelling content to audiences in the formats they prefer.

Nearly eight years ago, hoichoi was born out of this very vision—to take Bengali stories to audiences globally in a digital-first format. Just like hoichoi, every vertical within the SVF ecosystem was created with a singular focus: to tell great stories across different mediums. We have never confined ourselves to being just film or television producers; instead, we have embraced multiple platforms and experimented with diverse genres.

A key step forward for us has been expanding beyond Bengali to create stories in other languages, allowing us to cater to a much wider audience. As we look ahead to the next decade, our goal remains the same—to push creative boundaries, adapt to changing audience preferences, and continue redefining the way regional content is consumed worldwide.

With hoichoi Studios strengthening its theatrical footprint, how do you strike a balance between OTT and big-screen releases?

It’s not about choosing between OTT and theatrical releases—it’s about ensuring both work in tandem. There is a set window for theatrical films, and we align with that. When a story deserves a big-screen experience, it goes under hoichoi Studios for a theatrical release. This not only does justice to the film but also builds anticipation before it arrives on hoichoi.

Having a theatrical run creates buzz, fuels audience interest, and ultimately helps the film reach a wider viewer base once it streams on hoichoi. SVF has always been in the business of theatrical films, and with hoichoi, we are now expanding the reach of those stories. The goal is to create a seamless strategic synergy between the two, maximizing both impact and audience engagement.

hoichoi TV+ is being positioned as a disruptive alternative to traditional TV. How do you plan to scale this offering and change audience viewing habits?

SVF has been creating television content for over a decade, especially in Bengali, and that experience gives us a strong foundation for hoichoi TV+. This is TV content with our own special sauce, built for the digital space but retaining the essence of what makes television so engaging.

A large section of TV audiences today doesn’t spend as much time on digital, and with TV+, we want to change that by offering content at more regular intervals, making it a habit. SVF has already been producing content for major channels across India, primarily in Bengali and now in other languages as well. This is a natural next step, and we see strong revenue potential in this space. We’ll learn and evolve as we go, but the goal is clear—redefine TV for the digital era while tapping into a wider audience base.

Branded content is becoming an integral part of digital storytelling. How does hoichoi plan to innovate in this space while maintaining strong narratives?

For us, storytelling always comes first. We begin with a strong narrative and then explore how the brand’s message can be seamlessly woven into it. The key is striking the right balance—ensuring the integration feels natural rather than forced.

Today’s audience connects with stories that feel relevant and authentic. If the content resonates with them, they will engage with it, even if it's branded. Our approach is not to overpromise or overcommit but to deliver the right story with the right message in the most organic way. At the end of the day, it’s all about storytelling, and we make sure that remains at the heart of everything we create.

With the rise of AI-driven recommendations, how does hoichoi personalize user experiences while catering to diverse audience preferences?

Our audience base is incredibly diverse—we have viewers from Bangladesh, a large global customer base, and audiences across India, all with different content consumption preferences. While hoichoi was originally built for Bengali content, we are expanding our reach through dubbing in languages like Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam.

We are working on a lot of things to enhance personalization. For example, creating a customized homepage for each user based on their viewing choices, social media activity, and engagement patterns. This ensures every customer gets recommendations tailored specifically to them. AI has a massive role to play in this, and we are actively exploring ways to refine our user interface by collaborating with various technology partners. We’re confident we’ll have something great to share on this front very soon.

Regional OTT platforms are gaining momentum. How does hoichoi plan to expand its content ecosystem beyond Bengali audiences while maintaining its core identity?

At its core, hoichoi is about telling great stories, and we have chosen to focus on one language cohort—Bengali. This commitment allows us to stay deeply rooted in our identity while delivering high-quality, culturally resonant content to our audience.

At the same time, having one of the largest libraries of original content, we have always dubbed our shows and films in multiple languages like Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam. We continue to make this content available not just on hoichoi but also through partner platforms such as Jio, Prime etc, ensuring our stories reach a wider audience.

Additionally, through strategic licensing and syndication, our dubbed content is accessible on various platforms, expanding its reach beyond linguistic barriers. By collaborating with partners while maintaining our core identity, we ensure that Bengali storytelling continues to thrive while reaching new audiences.