India’s Soft Porn Streaming Industry
These platforms like Ullu, ALTT, Hulchul, and Desiflix straddle a world between what is respectable storytelling and otherwise — while also trying to give erotic stories a veneer of respectability, by further creating a distinction between ‘vulgar’ and ‘non-vulgar’ ones
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“Industry mein sirf do cheezein bikti hai — gold ya bold,” writer-director Rafat Abbas Ali tells The Hollywood Reporter India. (“Only two things sell in the industry — gold or bold.”) ‘Gold’ refers to “premium” stories streaming on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, while ‘bold’ are the erotic shows on apps like Ullu and ALTBalaji (ALTT).
A craftsman of the latter, Ali also goes by Raifee — “Hollywood jaisa naam lagta hai,” a Hollywood-like name, he laughs. He has directed over 55 shows for both Ullu and ALTT, a prolific filmography that includes names like Rangeen Kahaniyan (2025), Namkeen Kisse (2024), Mithai Wali (2025), Devrani, Jethani Aur Voh (2023), and Love Guru (2022), an architect of desires for the Hindi heartland man.
Then suddenly, in July this year, when the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) banned 25 OTT platforms and their related mobile apps, including Ullu, ALTT, Hulchul, and Desiflix, this world that was his solid ground for years was yanked out from under his feet. “Actors have been calling me, worried about work. It is not like they cannot do ‘gold’-type stories, but once you have done ‘bold’ stories, it becomes difficult,” he notes.
The rationale given for this ban was the “obscene content” on these platforms that engaged in “indecent representation of women.” Just two months earlier, in May, House Arrest, a captivity-based reality show hosted by actor Ajaz Khan on Ullu, came under fire when a clip from the show went viral — of Khan asking a female contestant about sex positions, and later asking two other contestants to enact these positions. Another challenge on this show was for the women to take off their undergarments from under their clothes, on camera. After MIB’s intervention, Ullu took down the show.
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