Indian OTT platforms have been blamed for language bias from time to time and not without enough reason. There has always been a little negligence towards the smaller languages.
Recently, netizens have called Jio Hotstar out for its bias against the regional languages like Kannada and Punjabi. The OTT problem in Kannada has resurfaced on social media time and again.
There have been many instances where Kannada titles were rejected for its language by the platforms. The show ‘Ekam’ backed by the likes of Prakash Raj and Raj B. Shetty could not find a platform so it had to be released on a website.
@JioHotstar@hotstar_helps
Why Punjabi language Videos, Movies not available in Jiohotstar???@dailypostpunjab@bbcnewspunjabi#punjabilanguage,#JagoPunjabiyoJiostar koi jawab dega???? https://t.co/cKkEU8KHAt
— Charanjeet Singh (@cdsksp) May 25, 2025
Hey @JioHotstar adding
JioHotstar Kannada would make your content more accessible to millions of viewers in Karnataka and Kannada viewers in India, can you consider it#ಕನ್ನಡ #Kannada#ServeinMyLanguage pic.twitter.com/Mx9aFs3hS1— Nikhil B R (@nikhilbiligere) May 25, 2025
People are asking why there is no Punjabi content on Jio Hotstar too. The Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi titles get sidelined most of the times and even good titles do not reach the public.
Jio Hotstar has content and separate social media handles for the South Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, but there is none for Kannada.
Including these languages will not just make the platform more inclusive but increase the view count as well. Jio Hotstar (and other platforms too) should start considering bringing more regional content now.
