A Satyajit Ray film from Srijit Mukherji heads a lineup of more than 25 series, films and TV titles that Bengali streamer Hoichoi has set for its 10th year. The slate also brings new cases for detectives Feluda and Eken Babu and the platform’s first animated series.
In “Maharaja Tomare Selam,” Ray agrees to his son’s request to make a children’s film. He then battles money trouble, resistance from the industry and the pressure of his own reputation on the road to what would become a classic of Indian cinema, “Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne.” Jeetu Kamal, Ritwik Bhowmik, Rudranil Ghosh, Sairity Banerjee, Shatakshy Nandy and Arijit Dutta star.
The Hoichoi Studio film lineup also includes “The Eken: Kerala-e Kurukshetra,” directed by Joydeep Mukherjee. In it, a botched secret mission drags Eken Babu into a mystery in Kerala. Anirban Chakrabarti, Ritwick Chakraborty, Raima Sen, Somak Ghosh, Suhotra Mukhopadhyay, Ambarish Bhattacharya, Arna Mukhopadhyay, Subrat Dutta and Kamaleswar Mukherjee make up the cast.
Parambrata Chatterjee directs and appears in “Jononi,” about a college professor who goes looking for her housekeeper’s missing teenage daughter and finds secrets closer to home. Koel Mallick, Koneenica Banerjee and Joy Sengupta also star. Debaloy Bhattacharya’s “Bhugun,” starring Abhishek Banerjee and Parno Mittra, follows a wealthy Bengali family whose deal with a tantric to restore its fortune brings down a deadly curse.
On the series side, Kamaleswar Mukherjee directs “Feludar Goyendagiri: Baksho Rawhoshyo,” in which Feluda chases the secret of a box swapped during a train journey. Tota Roy Choudhury, Kalpan Mitra and Subhadip Chakrabarti star. Other returning franchises include “Birangana 2,” “Kuheli 2,” “Thakumar Jhuli 2,” “Tansener Tanpura: Mohonbashi” with Vikram Chatterjee, and “Choddobeshi 2,” created by and starring Parambrata Chatterjee. He also directs “Agambagish: Drolmar Khorgo,” starring Saswata Chatterjee. In it, the tantric saint Krishnananda Agambagish takes on a band of ghostly dacoits in 17th-century Bengal.
New series include Pratim D. Gupta’s “Chaalchitro: The Ekchala Murders,” about a serial killer who leaves female victims posed as goddesses in the run-up to Durga Puja. It stars Tota Roy Choudhury, Anirban Chakrabarti, Chanchal Chowdhury and Sweta Mishra. Raima Sen leads “Kumari,” created by Sahana Dutta. Ayan Chakraborti’s “Shrimoti Not Out,” starring Ananya Chatterjee and Joy Sengupta, follows a 48-year-old woman who learns she is pregnant just as her son is about to marry. Mimi Chakraborty headlines Aditi Roy’s “Uttoron: Charulata,” and Sabyasachi Chowdhury stars in “Detective Tarinicharan,” a murder mystery set in colonial Darjeeling.
Rounding out the series slate are “Debipokkho,” “Kauriburir Mandir,” “Mangolik,” “Konya,” “Shoti,” “Jujuma” and “Kanamachhi.” Sanglap Bhowmick directs the animated “Shri Ramkrishna,” which traces the life of spiritual master Ramakrishna Paramahansa. On TV, Madhumita Sarcar and Arjun Chakrabarty star in “Katha-Amrito,” and Trina Saha stars in “Sholaka Rawhoshyo.” The streamer is also continuing to back Bangladeshi creators and productions.
“For me, 10 years of Hoichoi is not just about the number of shows we have made or the milestones we have crossed. It is about the stories, characters and creators that have stayed with people and, in many ways, become part of Bengali popular culture,” said Soumya Mukherjee, COO of Hoichoi. “When we started, the ambition was simply to create a home for Bengali stories. Ten years later, that belief remains the same, but the possibilities around those stories have become much bigger. We have seen Bengali IP grow beyond the screen it was created for, through adaptations, licensing, theatrical, partnerships, new formats and, increasingly, our stories are traveling beyond Bengal and beyond language.”
Hoichoi’s library now holds more than 600 Bengali films and over 200 original series, watched in India, Bangladesh and overseas. Beyond subscriptions, it makes money from licensing, branded content, theatrical releases and distribution deals. It has also moved onto technology it built itself.
Newer bets include Hoichoi FM, which carries original audio fiction inside the app, and Sooper, a microdrama venture working across languages and markets. The company is also testing AI tools for development and production through LoglineAI.
Vishnu Mohta, co-founder of Hoichoi and LoglineAI, said the first decade had been about proving a language-first platform could build a meaningful global business. “The next decade is about expanding what that platform can become,” Mohta said. “Technology, AI and new formats are opening up possibilities that simply didn’t exist when we started. Our ambition is to use those possibilities without losing the cultural instinct and storytelling sensibility that made Hoichoi what it is.”