Netflix’s new series The Ba***ds Of Bollywood has emerged one of the most successful marketing launches in the Indian streaming space in the post-pandemic streaming era. The curiosity surrounding its high-profile director (Aryan Khan) and a host of film star cameos was complemented by innovative and well-timed marketing, resulting in one of the strongest first-season launches for a streaming show in India. This article summarises the show’s marketing success, based on audience metrics from our tracking tool, Ormax Stream Track.

Ormax Stream Track

Ormax Stream Track is Ormax Media's audience tracking tool for new streaming (OTT) launches in India. Since its inception in April 2020, the tool has tracked more than 1,500 titles across major streaming platforms, covering fiction series, direct-to-OTT films, unscripted shows, and the streaming premieres of theatrical films. With nationwide coverage, Ormax Stream Track focuses on Hindi, English, and International launches, including Hindi dubbed versions of prominent titles from South Indian languages. In addition, we run custom tracks for various platforms catering specifically to Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and other such language markets.

Each property tracked under Ormax Stream Track is evaluated on four parameters - Buzz, Reach, Appeal, and Potency - from the time of its trailer drop until four weeks after its launch.

So, how did The Ba***ds Of Bollywood perform on these parameters?

Buzz

Buzz is a measure of % audience who recalled the show unaided, when asked to recall upcoming or recently-launched streaming properties. Buzz is a strong indicator of the talk value of the show, i.e., the degree and effectiveness of conversations around it.

The chart below lists 12 select non-franchise series released since January 2022 that achieved a Buzz score of 20% or higher in at least one week of tracking.

The Ba***ds Of Bollywood ranks second, alongside Heeramandi (Netflix), and only trails Farzi (Amazon Prime Video). These three are the only non-franchise web series since 2022 to record a peak Buzz of 30% or higher.

Interestingly, the week-on-week Buzz trajectory for The Ba***ds Of Bollywood follows a markedly different pattern compared to Farzi and Heeramandi, as seen in the chart below. “Wk 0” denotes the launch week of the show, based on the Friday–Thursday cycle followed by Ormax Stream Track.

The Ba***ds Of Bollywood launched on Thursday, September 18, 2025. The show recorded a modest Buzz of 10% in its launch week (September 12-18), ranking a low No. 44 among non-franchise Hindi fiction series on Week 0 Buzz since 2022. However, within just a week (September 19-25), its Buzz saw a dramatic threefold rise, driven by a post-launch marketing blitz across digital and traditional media.

This trend reflects a growing norm in streaming original campaigns in 2024-25, where much of a show’s marketing effort is now concentrated in the post-launch phase. In an increasingly cluttered environment, where more than six Indian originals debut every week, this shift appears both strategic and necessary. It’s the classic marketing principle in action: if you’re promoting a product, make sure it’s already on the shelf.

Reach

The second parameter in Ormax Stream Track is Reach, a score on a 0-100 scale that measures % audience who are aware of the name of the series, i.e., said ‘Yes’ when asked if they have heard of the series. Reach captures how wide the campaign has managed to penetrate among OTT audiences. It is different from a media planner’s definition of Reach, because, in this case, the name must have registered with the audience.

The chart below highlights the leading non-franchise Hindi fiction originals since January 2022, based on their peak Reach performance. Just four titles managed to cross the 80% threshold, including The Ba***ds Of Bollywood.

Like on Buzz, the show was a late bloomer on Reach as well, rising from 62% in Week 0 to 78% in Week 1, and stabilising at 82% in both Weeks 2 and 3.

Appeal

The third parameter in Ormax Stream Track is Appeal, a score on a 0-100 scale that measures % audience who are definitely interested in watching the show, among those aware of it. Appeal is a strong indicator of the creative strength of the campaign, i.e., the collective pull of the show/ film’s cast, genre, platform and other such aspects, as communicated via the various assets in the campaign.

Farzi remains the strongest performer on this parameter, with a peak Appeal of 69% achieved two weeks after its release. The Ba***ds Of Bollywood ranks second among non-franchise Hindi series since the start of 2022, with an Appeal of 57% in its launch week.

Potency

The fourth Ormax Stream Track parameter, Potency, is defined as a score on a 0-100 scale that measures % audience who are interested in subscribing to a pay (SVOD) platform specifically to watch it. In effect, Potency is a measure of the efficacy of a show/film to drive new subscriptions/ renewals.

Potency was introduced as a parameter in Ormax Stream Track in June 2024. In the 16-month period since then, The Ba***ds Of Bollywood has delivered the strongest performance among all non-franchise Hindi series, with a peak Potency of 27%. No other non-franchise title launched during this period has managed to achieve even the 20% mark.

Conclusion

The Ba***ds Of Bollywood has emerged as one of the strongest launches in the Indian streaming space in the post-pandemic era, second only to the indomitable Farzi, which continues to be the most-watched Indian streaming series behind a paywall. The show’s success underscores the importance of clutter-breaking marketing hooks - an imaginative title, a star director, high-profile cameos, and a chart-topping song - brought to life through innovative use of digital media.