Agarwal thought for a bit after which mentioned in Hindi: “I had developed a fever, questioning what title to present. I wished a phrase that individuals recognise and use of their every day lives. Anybody who’s awake late into the night time binge watching exhibits, we name him ‘ullu’, no?”
Ullu in English is owl—nocturnal birds with a carnivorous weight-reduction plan.
In India’s widespread creativeness, the Ullu app has come to face for an additional factor—prime quality soft-core leisure. A lot in order that final month, the ministry of knowledge and broadcasting banned the platform, together with over 20 others, for streaming sexually express content material.
An appendix to the order, 90 pages lengthy, and informally circulated, specified by nice element the rationale for the ban. Together with screenshots from streaming exhibits as proof, the appendix outlines the runtime of the exhibits, the sexual content material timeline, the overall sexual content material size, and a bunch of remarks for each present.
Pattern this: “The content material is aimed to impress sexual needs fairly than inform or educate”; “the content material appeals to base and morbid pursuits, and has the potential to hurt and corrupt the viewers”; “there may be hardly any storyline. Some form of pretentious ‘story’ is created which can’t be termed as a narrative even in a free sense of the phrase”.
For the reason that order, the Ullu app has gone lacking from the Android Play Retailer and the Apple App Retailer. Ullu’s web site can be inaccessible, as are its handles on X (previously Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Nevertheless, the corporate’s WhatsApp channel and Fb web page are nonetheless public, though they haven’t been up to date since final month.
Issues appeared very completely different even a couple of months in the past. Using the covid-19 pandemic lockdown increase in streaming companies, Ullu Digital Ltd, the corporate that operates the Ullu app, grew 12-fold to ₹100 crore in income between 2019-20 and 2023-24. And final 12 months, Agarwal filed for an preliminary public providing (IPO) to lift over ₹100 crore on the SME change, claiming Ullu Digital as India’s solely worthwhile streaming platform. It turned a internet revenue of ₹13 crore in 2023-24.
How did Agarwal find yourself because the king of daring leisure in India? And what occurs now to his as soon as buzzing media properties? Aside from Ullu, he runs two extra streaming providers—Atrangii, an leisure platform, and Hari Om, which is devoted to Hindu mythology. As well as, Agarwal runs an e-commerce enterprise that sells pyjamas and inside put on referred to as Ullu99.
Man of metal
Agarwal was not all the time within the enterprise of leisure. His household enterprise, began within the ‘90s in Lucknow, includes distribution and sale of thermo-mechanically handled rebars (a sort of high-strength metal bar), metal supplies, cement, and associated items. MCA filings present his firms—Jaypeeco India Pvt. Ltd and Himalaya Fibertech Cement Pvt. Ltd— are pretty modest undertakings, with ₹4.64 crore and ₹4 lakh in whole income, respectively, as of 2023-24, and negligible internet revenue.
Agarwal additionally runs a charitable belief in Lucknow and a faculty, Jaypee Convent, the place his spouse Megha Agarwal was as soon as a principal, as per her LinkedIn profile. Little else is thought concerning the enterprise and Vibhu Agarwal has by no means publicly spoken about his ventures in his hometown.
In 2018, as India’s OTT trade was simply taking delivery, Agarwal arrange an workplace in Mumbai and recruited writers to draft scripts for brief, snappy movies. Among the many earliest such writers was Amitava Mitra who has labored on iconic exhibits reminiscent of Star TV community’s 2012 thriller, Savdhaan India.
“The cash initially was very much less but it surely was good to work with Vibhu ji,” Mitra advised Mint in an interview. It took him a couple of day to write down one 40-min movie, and he was paid ₹25,000 per script, in money, by the tip of the day.
A number of months later, Agarwal launched Ullu as a standalone streaming platform and app, full with the launch social gathering referenced above.
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These had been pivotal days in India’s over-the-top (OTT) trade—Hotstar was the chief within the enterprise because it streamed the Indian Premier League whereas Netflix and Amazon Prime Video had simply entered the nation. Reliance-owned Viacom had launched its personal streaming platform, Voot, with an array of unique exhibits headlined by massive names.
In all this, Ullu was a mere footnote. Till the pandemic.
Growth years
As individuals had been locked up of their properties through the pandemic, dealing with work-from-home mandates or getting laid off, India’s streaming enterprise started to increase. In 2022, India’s on-line video viewers grew to 527 million, up from 406 million in 2019, as streaming platforms invested ₹8,200 crore on making and buying content material. In the meantime, cable TV subscription income declined steadily, from ₹46,800 crore in 2019 to ₹39,200 crore in 2022, per a joint report by trade physique FICCI and consulting agency EY.
Ullu noticed speedy development in demand as nicely, and started churning out tens of net collection each month, scripted, shot, edited, and launched inside a matter of weeks. As demand soared, Ullu additionally hiked its subscription costs from the measly ₹36 a 12 months launch supply to weekly, month-to-month, quarterly, and annual subscription plans operating from beneath ₹200 apiece to ₹999 for the 12 months.
₹36 a 12 months.” title=”Promotional supply at Ullu app’s launch in 2019. Subscription costs began at ₹36 a 12 months.”>View Full Picture
This was when writers, administrators, and different workers on Ullu originals started making higher cash, too.
“In 2022, I used to be launched to the workforce at Ullu, and I started enhancing some exhibits for the platform,” Raifee, a writer-director who goes by his skilled mononym, advised Mint.
His specialty is writing and directing pacy thrillers with erotic overtones. His work has featured in Ullu and Altt, amongst different platforms. He, like others within the TV and now OTT enterprise, churns out content material on an meeting line. Take into account this: Raifee has over 20 credit as director of TV and net collection in 2025 alone, a lot of that are Ullu originals.
“Within the final three years, I’ve labored on over 75 net collection throughout platforms,” he mentioned.
Together with quantity, Ullu additionally started to extend the funds of their exhibits. “We made seven episode exhibits on a funds of ₹16 lakh or so,” Raifee mentioned. “Every little thing was executed very professionally. We don’t shoot these exhibits with jugaad (improvisation). There may be correct casting; location scouting; we work with 5 digital camera setups; an expert director of images or cinematographer, and a crew of over 70 individuals,” he added.
Mitra, too, started to earn more money for his writing. “I began with ₹25,000-30,000 per script however then it went as much as ₹65,000-70,000 per episode,” he mentioned. “I understood Vibhu ji is launching an erotic app, however I didn’t have an issue with it. I’ve watched many erotic thrillers from all over the world.”
So was erotica all the time Ullu’s mission? Not precisely.
In his launch social gathering deal with in 2019, Agarwal had laid out his imaginative and prescient for Ullu: an reasonably priced app that any “middle-class” Indian household can afford with out fear, that includes each movies and web-series that centre round on a regular basis points.
Its earliest originals included a present named Dance Bar, centered on the lives of girls working in Mumbai’s well-known dance bars and a crime-drama movie, Ferrous, starring Hindi movie actor Vijay Raaz within the lead. It premiered at a world movie competition in Lagos, Nigeria.
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But, there was all the time a ‘daring’ scene or two in lots of of those originals, thrown in for context, reminiscent of within the net collection Dance Bar. One other present that Mitra labored on, named Tadap, featured a teenage woman making an attempt to flee the management of her patriarchal father.
“The workforce studied the market dynamics and learnt that the audiences coming to Ullu had been primarily participating with daring content material,” Prashant Nigam, vice chairman at Ullu, advised Mint in an electronic mail response to an in depth questionnaire. “Because the diversification started, Ullu’s focus modified to daring content material.”
Nevertheless, as Ullu morphed from the house of racy thrillers and dramas to the vacation spot of soft-core leisure, its fortunes rose. By 2024, Ullu Digital had crossed ₹100 crore in income, with a modest revenue margin. Many of the firm’s income got here from subscriptions, with some cash generated from promoting on the Ullu platform and advert income from the corporate’s YouTube channels.
In its draft crimson herring prospectus final 12 months, the corporate mentioned Ullu had almost 2.1 million energetic paying subscribers, almost double from the 1.14 million in 2021, however decrease than the height of over 2.7 million customers as of March 2023.
As Agarwal’s media empire boomed, his household enterprise of cement and metal started to say no. MCA filings present the overall income of Jaypeeco India fell from over ₹68 crore in 2014-15 to only over ₹4 crore in 2023-24. Equally, Himalaya Fibertech’s income fell from a excessive of over ₹147 crore in 2015-16 to only over ₹4 lakh as of 2023-24.
Ullu’s success additionally spawned the time period ‘Ullu Women’. They had been actresses who starred within the platform’s express originals. Final 12 months, the Ullu app started a stay streaming division referred to as Ullu Reside. Right here, actresses and ‘sizzling’ girls would function on ‘enjoyable’ paid stay streams, just for subscribers.
New faces, outdated story
Creatives who labored with Ullu say Vibhu Agarwal was intently concerned in each choice of the platform’s originals from its earliest days.
“There may be not a single story I’ve written for Ullu the place Vibhu ji didn’t sit in for at the least one narration,” Mitra mentioned. “He has a eager ear for tales and he is aware of what sells for his viewers. As soon as, throughout a narration, he even identified what was going flawed in my story,” he added.
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Over time, Agarwal minimize the price of producing unique content material, among the many largest bills for any streaming platform, to spice up the bottomline. Mitra and Raifee advised Mint that manufacturing budgets for Ullu exhibits fell from ₹4-7 lakh per episode through the pandemic to as little as ₹1-2.5 lakh per episode since final 12 months. Ullu’s Nigam, nevertheless, clarified that the platform all the time maintained a funds of ₹3.5-4 lakh per episode.
In the meantime, some actors mentioned that decrease budgets meant newer faces, decrease pay, and infrequently, dangerous working situations.
“Initially, once I labored in my hometown Ambala, I might solely earn ₹7,000-12,000 a month in any job,” YouTuber Shyna Khatri, previously a star of a number of Ullu unique exhibits, advised Mint. “Once I started auditioning for net collection in Mumbai, I used to be provided ₹15,000 a day. How might I say no?”
Khatri began with exhibits for a rival streaming platform, PrimePlay, earlier than engaged on Ullu originals reminiscent of Malai and Tohfa.
Quickly sufficient, she turned a preferred ‘Ullu Woman’. Nonetheless, she realised that the tight schedules and work situations weren’t well worth the cash. “We had been taking pictures five-six episodes a day, again to again,” Khatri mentioned concerning the OTT platforms. “Generally, you even needed to put in 24 hour shifts.”
Many of those exhibits had been shot in a rural setting—outdoors Mumbai, close to Vasai or Virar. At occasions, they weren’t served meals or given lodging. “Moreover, from the ₹10,000-15,000 a day we made, the casting director and the dubbing artist would take a minimize. Then there may be TDS (tax deducted at supply). What’s left on the finish of the day?”
Finally, Khatri fell out with Ullu and determined to strike it out on her personal as a YouTuber and podcaster. Amongst her hottest episodes is an interview with net collection star Yuvraaj Gupta referred to as The Darkish Actuality of Ullu Actors.
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Nevertheless, others say phasing out actresses turned a strategic choice.
“Audiences stored coming again for Ullu exhibits to see model new faces, not the identical actresses over and over,” Raifee mentioned. “The trick is to maintain casting new actors and actresses.”
Devotional twist
As Ullu expanded, it additionally got here beneath scrutiny for its ‘daring’, express content material. Quickly sufficient, Agarwal expanded quickly into a number of new traces of enterprise to counterbalance his erotic money-spinner.
In 2022, he launched a free-to-air Hindi leisure TV channel referred to as Atrangii, airing dramas, thrillers, crime exhibits, even mythology with out a subscription price. Nevertheless, a 12 months later, the corporate shut down the free TV channel and have become an OTT app as a substitute.
In Might final 12 months, Agarwal launched the Hari Om OTT app, a streaming platform devoted to Hindu mythology and non secular exhibits, reminiscent of a retelling of the epic Ramayana together with devotional music and livestream darshan of India’s holiest temples. Each Atrangii and Hari Om are operated by the identical firm—Atrangii Community Pvt. Ltd.
In June final 12 months, Agarwal additionally modified the title and nature of one other group firm, the e-commerce enterprise named Ullu99. This firm sells males’s underwear and fundamentals, together with t-shirts. Whereas its web site continues to be operational, Ullu’s Nigam advised Mint this enterprise has been shut down. Its dad or mum entity was renamed Woh Wali Movie Pvt. Ltd, whose main enterprise is producing unique content material for different platforms.
Lastly, proper earlier than it was banned this 12 months, Ullu introduced a blockchain-based token named Ullu Coin. The token was used as a solution to pay for Ullu stay streaming and different paid options on the app, Ullu’s vice-president Nigam advised Mint.
Sport over?
Whilst Agarwal expanded into extra palatable traces of enterprise, Ullu remained beneath scrutiny. Final 12 months, information group The Morning Context reported {that a} Dubai-based holding agency had purchased 5% stake in Ullu Digital Ltd; the Dubai firm is claimed to have hyperlinks with an alleged hawala operator, beneath investigation within the Mahadev betting app case and within the alleged fraud by the promoters of Gensol Engineering.
In the meantime, final March, the Nationwide Fee for Safety of Little one Rights additionally requested the federal government to research Ullu for allegedly focusing on school-age youngsters with grownup content material. In February this 12 months, the ministry of knowledge and broadcasting issued an advisory, asking all OTT platforms to stick to the code of ethics of the IT Act, 2021 and keep away from “obscene” content material. The ban got here in July this 12 months and was communicated privately to app shops and web service suppliers.
Agarwal now lists himself because the chief government officer (CEO) and founding father of Atrangii and Ullu99 on his LinkedIn profile, however marked the tip of his stint as Ullu’s CEO in August 2023.
Information from the ministry of company affairs present he resigned as Ullu Digital’s managing director on 24 March 2025. His spouse, Megha, resigned from the corporate’s board in July final 12 months.
“I believe Ullu and different platforms took their probabilities, held their breath, and handled complaints piecemeal,” Ameet Datta, founding father of ADP Legislation Workplaces, a regulation agency, advised Mint. “I name these apps grey-line OTTs—they straddle the gray line close to softcore pornography.”
Ullu and different platforms took their probabilities, held their breath, and handled complaints piecemeal.
—Ameet Datta
Datta factors out that the language of the IT Act sections coping with obscenity and pornography are sometimes imprecise, and judgements on banning express content material usually depend on continuously evolving neighborhood requirements. That leaves the Act vulnerable to misuse and on the mercy of presidency censorship.
Does that imply Vibhu Agarwal and Ullu could have a preventing likelihood towards the ban? Maybe.
“There are different mainstream platforms in India that even have full frontal nudity and different express components. But when your complete app is a car of pornography, or related to solely objectionable content material, the authorities could haven’t any selection however to ban the app altogether,” Datta mentioned.
In the meantime, individuals Mint spoke to say Agarwal and his workforce have been transferring some Ullu originals to Atrangii, minus the sexually express content material. Nigam says solely ‘premium’ Ullu originals are being transferred.
Regardless of the controversies and the tag of obscenity, Vibhu ji or Vibhu sir, as Agarwal is fondly referred to as by colleagues in Mumbai, stays a preferred determine. For some individuals like author Amitava Mitra, he’s a dependable collaborator in an trade with precarious job safety.
“Vibhu ji, Ullu, and Atrangii got here at a really troublesome time in my profession, once I wanted work and the cash,” Mitra mentioned. “I’m grateful to him.”
