Unscripted entertainment is building an ecosystem spanning talent, creators, fandom and brands, said Alok Jain, Head – Hindi & English Entertainment Business (Streaming, TV and Studios), JioStar, atFICCI FRAMES 2026. Delivering a keynote titled ‘The Billion Emotions Engine’, Jain said the industry had released over 40 unscripted shows across television and digital in the past year, with another 17 lined up over the coming months. He also said every five hours of programming generates around 20 hours of creator content.
A subsequent panel featuring Deepak Dhar, Ekta Kapoor, Vipul Shah and Nikul Desai, moderated by Storyboard18 Editor Delshad Irani, examined format reinvention, competition from social media, regional expansion and the global potential of Indian reality shows. The session concluded with the launch of ‘JioStar: Home of Unscripted – The Billion Emotions Engine’, a coffee table book that reports over 1,000 brand associations with JioStar’s non-fiction properties between 2022 and 2026 and a portfolio mix of 70% homegrown originals and 30% global IPs.
Setting the tone for the session, Alok Jain, Head – Hindi & English Entertainment Business (Streaming, TV and Studios), JioStar, delivered a keynote titled ‘The Billion Emotions Engine’, positioning reality and non-fiction as one of the fastest-scaling formats in Indian entertainment.
Citing Salman Khan’s recent ziral incident on Bigg Boss Season 20, Alok Jain said, “This is what reality content does to the industry.” He described today’s Indian consumer as young, ambitious and impatient, and said unscripted resonates with this audience because it is unpredictable and authentic. “For the makers it is unpredictable, for consumers it is unpredictable, and that makes reality content very exciting.From moments that become cultural phenomena to an ecosystem that brings together talent, formats, creators, fandom and brands, JioStar is building unscripted as a powerful flywheel that compounds with every season,” he added.
He further added that the industry has released over 40 unscripted shows across TV and digital in the last year, with 17 more lined up for the next few months. He outlined how the genre fuels a wider flywheel of talent, formats, creators, fandom and brands, with every five hours of programming generating around 20 hours of creator content.
The keynote was followed by the panel ‘Reality: The Hit-Making Engine – Moments that Turn into Cultural Phenomena’, moderated by Delshad Irani, Editor, Storyboard18.
Deepak Dhar, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Banijay Asia and Endemol Shine India, said legacy franchises such as Bigg Boss and Khatron Ke Khiladi stay fresh by respecting the format while constantly reinventing it with Colors and JioHotstar. With audiences now discovering shows through reels and promos, he said the franchises must unlearn old habits and hook viewers within the first 10 to 15 minutes.
Ekta Kapoor, Founder, Balaji Telefilms Limited, said the biggest competition for long-form content is social media, and that to pull viewers away from 10-second videos, shows must be provocative and real. “In that fight, I think unscripted is winning currently,” she said, adding that unscripted is here to stay.
Vipul Shah, Founding Chairman and Managing Director, Optimystix Entertainment, said Laughter Chefs was born from pairing two comforts audiences turned to during Covid: cooking and comedy. “In a reality show, scripting is casting,” he said, adding that social media and unscripted now feed each other, with one moment sending viewers straight back to the show.
Nikul Desai, Founder and Producer, Eevaan Films and Story Weaver Collective, spoke about taking the genre into new markets with Bhojpuri Bawal, aimed at audiences in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, and credited his partnership with JioStar and Colors, which he said backs an idea fully once it commits.
On taking Indian unscripted global, Dhar said the more locally rooted a show is, the further it travels, and that India’s moment, like that of Korean or Turkish content, is just around the corner. Shah summed up the genre’s formula in three words: connect, controversy and conversation.
The session culminated with the launch of JioStar’s non-fiction coffee table book titled, JioStar: Home of Unscripted – The Billion Emotions Engine by Alok Jain, in the presence of Deepak Dhar, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Banijay Asia and Endemol Shine India, Ekta Kapoor, Founder, Balaji Telefilms Limited, Vipul Shah, Founding Chairman and Managing Director, Optimystix Entertainment and Nikul Desai, Founder and Producer, Eevaan Films and Story Weaver Collective.
Launched at FICCI Frames, the coffee table book captures how JioStar’s Hindi non-fiction portfolio reaches over 1 billion people, clocking over 460 billion hours of watch time. JioStar further outlines how they are driving innovation through 70% homegrown originals and 30% global IPs, with over 1,000 brands associating with their non-fiction properties between 2022-2026.
