YouTube has partnered with Balaji Telefilms to develop five exclusive original shows, marking another major step in the platform’s growing push to become a bigger part of India’s connected-TV entertainment landscape. The collaboration will bring 200 episodes to YouTube, with Ekta Kapoor leading the creative vision.
YouTube is making a bigger play for the television screen in India, and this time it has a major television and film production house alongside it.
The Google-owned video platform has entered into a strategic partnership with Balaji Telefilms to launch five exclusive original shows on YouTube. The planned slate will comprise around 200 episodes, bringing established television properties as well as new stories to the platform.
The partnership comes as viewing on connected televisions continues to expand in India, giving YouTube an opportunity to position its long-form content alongside traditional television and streaming services.
Ekta Kapoor To Lead The Creative Vision
Under the partnership, Ekta Kapoor will lead the creative direction of the slate, while Balaji Telefilms will retain ownership of the intellectual property, according to the announcement.
YouTube, meanwhile, will provide distribution and monetisation opportunities, including advertising and brand partnerships.
The arrangement reflects a broader shift in the entertainment business, where producers are increasingly looking beyond conventional television channels and subscription streaming platforms to reach audiences directly through digital video services.
For Kapoor, it is another opportunity to take her long association with mainstream Indian storytelling into a different distribution environment.
“Through this partnership with YouTube India, we’re opening a new chapter to share stories that entertain, inspire, and truly move people across the globe,” Ekta Kapoor, Joint Managing Director of Balaji Telefilms, said.
She added that storytelling has always been about creating emotional connections with viewers and said YouTube’s growing role in content discovery presents an opportunity to engage audiences in new ways.
Haq Se Season 2 And Kehne Ko Humsafar Hai Season 4 Among The Slate
The upcoming lineup will include both returning titles and new projects.
Among the announced shows are Haq Se Season 2 and Kehne Ko Humsafar Hai Season 4. The slate will also include Phir Pyar Ki Yeh Kahani Suno, alongside other projects that are still under development.
The mix is significant because it combines recognisable titles with fresh programming, potentially allowing existing audiences to follow familiar stories while giving new concepts an opportunity to find viewers on YouTube.
Details about the remaining projects have not yet been fully disclosed.
Why Connected TV Matters To YouTube
YouTube’s partnership with Balaji comes at a time when connected television is becoming increasingly important to the company’s strategy in India.
According to YouTube, connected TV has been its fastest-growing screen in India over the past five years.
The platform said it reached more than 75 million people aged 18 and above in India on connected TV as of April 2025. It also reported that more than half of the viewing time on connected TV was spent on content running 21 minutes or longer.
Those figures point towards a notable change in viewing behaviour.
YouTube is traditionally associated with short-form and creator-led videos, but the platform has increasingly become a destination for longer entertainment content as audiences watch YouTube on television sets.
That creates an opening for professionally produced scripted shows.
YouTube Wants To Become A Bigger TV Alternative
Gunjan Soni, Managing Director of YouTube India, described the direction as part of a changing television landscape.
“The future of TV has to be designed around a digital-first audience that wants the best of both worlds: high-quality shows on the biggest screen in the home, with the flexibility of on-demand,” Soni said.
That strategy places YouTube in an increasingly interesting position.
Traditional television offers scheduled programming and mass reach, while streaming services have built audiences around on-demand viewing. YouTube can potentially combine elements of both models while giving producers additional options for advertising and audience discovery.
For content companies, this could also create another route to monetise established intellectual property.
A Bigger Distribution Opportunity For Indian Producers
The Balaji partnership follows YouTube’s wider efforts to develop new distribution models for professionally produced entertainment.
Soni had previously discussed the company’s interest in creating additional distribution opportunities for production houses and studios, including experimenting with different release windows and monetisation models.
The objective is not necessarily to replace existing platforms, but to create additional ways for rights holders to reach audiences and generate revenue from their content.
That approach could become increasingly relevant as India’s entertainment market becomes more fragmented across television, streaming platforms, social video and connected-TV viewing.
YouTube’s Earlier Movie Distribution Experiment
YouTube has already tested an alternative approach to film distribution in India.
The platform previously partnered with Aamir Khan to make his film Sitaare Zameen Par available on YouTube on a rental basis following its theatrical release. The arrangement covered India as well as international markets.
The move demonstrated how YouTube could function as a distribution platform for mainstream cinema beyond its traditional role as a free video service.
The film later became available on SonyLIV, showing that the YouTube release was part of a broader distribution strategy rather than a permanent replacement for conventional streaming windows.
India Remains A Crucial Market For YouTube
India is particularly important to YouTube because of the sheer scale of its user base.
The platform has more than half a billion users in the country, making India its largest market and a key region for future expansion.
As more households connect televisions to the internet, the distinction between television viewing and online video is becoming less pronounced.
That change could benefit platforms such as YouTube, which already have enormous audiences but are now seeking to deepen their presence in long-form entertainment.
What The Balaji Partnership Could Mean For Viewers
For audiences, the partnership could mean access to more professionally produced Indian fiction directly through YouTube.
For Balaji Telefilms, it offers another distribution channel for its intellectual property.
And for YouTube, the collaboration strengthens its argument that the platform can be more than a destination for individual videos and creator content—it can also serve as a home for premium, episodic entertainment designed to be watched on the biggest screen in the house.
The immediate focus will be on the five-show slate and how audiences respond to it.
