Mumbai: MX Player and ALTBalaji have partnered to launch a reality show ‘Lock Upp: Badass Jail, Atyaachari Khel’ with Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut as the host of the show. The show premieres on 27 February.
Produced by Endemol Shine, the show features 16 celebrities who are put together lock- up for months and stripped of their amenities. The announcement was made at a press conference on Thursday by Ekta R. Kapoor along with MX Media CEO Karan Bedi and actor Kangana Ranaut. Also present were ALTBalaji Group COO Zulfiqar Khan, MX Media COO Nikhil Gandhi, and MX Player SVP and head – acquisitions Mansi Shrivastav.
The show will be live-streamed 24X7 on both ALTBalaji and MX Player. ALTBalaji will also introduce a fantasy metaverse game based on the reality show. “I am thrilled and excited to be foraying into OTT with such a unique and brilliant concept,” said Kangana Ranaut. “I want to thank Ekta for always being by my side, she has always been someone I admire and respect a lot. I am glad that she is there with me for my OTT debut as well.”
“Lock Upp is being launched on a massive scale and has all the elements that make for an entertaining reality show,” said Ekta R. Kapoor. “The concept of the show is brilliant, and I am sure that it will captivate the viewers and set a new standard for reality shows.”
“MX has always been a market disruptor - our user-first approach to create product and content experiences that appeal to our huge audiences’ segments has made us India's largest entertainment platform today,” said MX Media CEO Karan Bedi. “Lock Upp is yet another step in disrupting the Indian entertainment ecosystem as it is designed as a digital-first non-fiction offering that will release on a scale that is unprecedented for India.”
“ALTBalaji is proud to be the first in the world to launch a metaverse game that is based on a reality show,” said ALTBalaji Group COO Zulfiqar Khan. “Gaming enthusiasts around the world can explore this fantastic world that we are creating with elements of blockchain and NFTs.”
“At the heart of MX Player’s success lies the ‘global Indian’ consumer and we have constantly been working towards creating content as per consumer preferences, especially given the large user base of over 300 million globally spanning across the US, UK, Middle East Southeast Asia and more that we cater to on our platform,” said MX Media COO Nikhil Gandhi.
“MX Player's content design focuses on building a bouquet of engaging and entertaining offerings for our diverse audience and the biggest pillar of our content creation philosophy is our partnership with content creators and aggregators,” said MX Player SVP and head – content acquisitions Mansi Shrivastav.