From Sunny Leone's biopic to Raima Sen's short film: ZEE5 launches 20 ZEE5 Originals across 6 languages and 7 genres

A month after launching India's largest platform for consumption of digital content, ZEE5 launched a host of ZEE5 originals including web-series and short films for its OTT platform. The launch event was a starry affair, graced by a number of celebs from the tinsel town. Sunny Leone launched the trailer of her biopic Karenjit Kaur - The Untold Story of Sunny Leone. Other actors like Sumeet Vyas, Raima Sen, Naveen Kasturia, Maanvi Gaagroo among others were present to launch their respective web-series and short films which will be streamed exclusively on ZEE5. 

While we waited for the gala event to begin, a magician, Chirag Jethwaney kept us all entertained with his impressive card tricks. Soon after that, the exuberant and gorgeous Kubra Sait took over the stage and welcomed the guests of honour for the evening, Amit Goenka, CEO - Zee International and Z5 Global, and Punit Goenka, MD and CEO ZEEL.

She then invited Amit Goenka who took us all through the exciting line-up of ZEE5 originals that were launched on Monday and we also got to catch the first glimpses of the shows, web series and short films.

While addressing the gathering, Amit Goenka shared, "The content for ZEE5 originals have been specifically created with deep consumer insights into our audience's preferences. 75% of the Indian Internet users are millennials and this is the audience that is increasingly watching content online."

Further informing about the ZEE5 originals that have been launched, Amit Goenka shared that by the end of April this year, ZEE5 will stream about 20 original shows. Going forward, one new web series will be launched exclusively on ZEE5 every month, 6 languages across 7 genres. He also highlighted that ZEE5 aims to produce over 90 originals by the end of the next year, i.e., 2019. 

The ZEE5 original shows will be available in six languages including, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali. The originals will be spread across seven genres including Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Action, Satire, Reality and Biopics. This was followed by a live dance performance on the ZEE5 anthem, That's How We Talk Raja, composed by Amit Trivedi, featuring the rap by Badshah. 

Then began the launch of ZEE5 originals with Luv Ranjan's Life Sahi Hai 2, which is the season two of its prequel, which was a huge success. Team Life Sahi Hai 2 was present at the occasion and spoke about why the web series only talks about the problems of the guys and the kind of pressure that's there on them because of the immense success of the first season. 

We were then shown a sneak peek of Badshah's very own unique show called Lockdown in which the biggest names from the music industry like Raftaar, Jonita Gandhi,Kailash Kher, Badshah and others will come together to create fusion music and more. In fact, for the first time, rap sensation Raftaar will be heard rapping in his mother tongue which is Malayalam. 

Next, the immensely talented and popular actor Sumeet Vyas of Permanent Roommates fame, took over the stage and spoke about his web series titled The Story. Going by its trailer that was show, the lines between true story and untrue story seem to have been blurred , giving it a new twist, a glimpse of which was seen in the incident narrated by Sumeet.

The team of the show Babbar Ka Tabbar which also features DID Lil masters fame Avaneet Kaur, was up on stage, talking about the most bizarre things that they've done. The host also pulled Avaneet's leg for having such a massive fan following on Instagram 

Actors Naveen Kasturia and Maanvi Gagroo took the stage to launch their respective shorts. While Maanvi will be seen in a unique short film titled Tamashree, in which her character falls in love with a tomato (not kidding!). Naveen spoke about his short films titled Sone Bhi Do Yaaron in which he plays the giys who's unable to sleep because of a guest in his house. Poor guy, he has an important meeting to attend in office the next day the the extremes to which he goes just to catch sleep is both hilarious and scary. 

The beautiful Raima Sen and noted lyricist Swanand Kirkire then introduced us to the short titled Mehmaan which will be in a mix of three languages, Hindi, English and Bengali. They also revealed that they shot for the film in just two days in Calcutta. Swanand Kirke revealed when he first got the call for a digital show, he thought that it was for Badshah's Lockdown. Raima Sen spoke about her character in Meherbaan and what drew her to take it up. 

Next up was the team of the web series Zero Kms who shared the unique concept of the series. 

The best was saved for the last as the first biopic of ZEE5 Originals to be launched was Sunny Leone's - titled Karenjit Kaur. Sunny made a grand entry on her popular track Baby Doll Main Sone Di and took the centre stage post which the trailer of her biopic was shown.

This was followed by Sunny Leone talking about reliving her journey while working on the biopic. She also spoke about the reaction of her parents when she told them about the choice of her profession. 

She also spoke about being a parent and the choices that her kids may make in future. She also got emotional on speaking about her own parents who are no more now. 

With a host of 20 originals to be on the platter this spring, including 9 Hindi web-series (Karenjit Kaur, Life Sahi Hai 2, Lockdown, Babbar Ka Tabbar, Zero Kms, Table Number 5, The Story, The Big Cover Up, Dhatt Teri Ki), 3 Hindi short films (Mehmaan, Tamashree, Sone Bhi Do Yaaron), 2 Marathi web-series (Liftman, Horn OK Please), 2 Telugu web-series (Nanna Koochi, Chitram Vichatram), 2 Tamil web-series (Kallachirippu, America Mappillai), 1 Malayalam web-series (Utsaha Ithihasam) and 1 Bengali movie (Aranya Deb), ZEE5 is all set to redefine online content consumption.