How STAGE Is Shaking Up Netflix & Amazon With Its Regional Originals

There’s an old adage — success comes to those who persevere. Yet in reality, most of us stumble when life starts giving lemons. Even entrepreneurs, though cut from a different cloth, aren’t immune to setbacks, self-doubt, failure, or frustration when faced with life’s curveballs.

The story of Vinay Singhal, the founder of a regional OTT platform, STAGE, is no different. At one point, he found himself at a crossroads.

“I was left with two options — either to make peace with a cushy corporate job or start from scratch. But my heart knew that I had to build,” Singhal recalled.

That unwavering conviction became his fuel, and despite the odds and funding challenges, Vinay built a business many believed wouldn’t survive. Rising above the naysayers, Singhal’s STAGE is today turning heads.

The venture has been earning praise from all quarters. It has also become a case study of how cultural conviction can drive success in India’s crowded OTT space. Founded in 2020, the startup claims to have 5 Mn paid subscribers and closed FY25 with a revenue of INR 135 Cr.

Last week, Shark Tank judge Namita Thapar took to X (erstwhile Twitter) to praise STAGE founders. “They have cracked the regional cultural nuances,” she wrote on X.

Tracing STAGE’s Journey

To trace STAGE’s journey, we need to go back to 2009, when Vinay Singhal was studying computer science at SRM University in Chennai. For a boy from a small town in Haryana, moving to Chennai was a step into a wider world of possibilities.

While Vinay was studying computer science, he was eager to test his skills in the real world. Therefore, he, along with his batchmate Shashank Vaishnav, began building websites and small software projects to earn some money during his early college years.

A year later, Vinay’s younger brother, Praveen, joined the same college. It was only obvious for Vinay to bring him on board for his side projects. Soon, the trio began working under a small venture they called Vatsana Technologies.

Around this time, Facebook had just launched Facebook Pages and was promoting them organically. Spotting an opportunity, the trio started a page called “Amazing Things In the World,” curating positive stories from across the globe.

Within a couple of months, the page exploded in popularity, but not in revenue. To monetise their growing audience, the trio launched WittyFeed in 2014.

This time, the idea was to build an Indianised version of BuzzFeed. Built under Vatsana Technologies, WittyFeed focussed on viral, listicle-style content designed for Facebook audiences.

The idea was simple: WittyFeed would partner with Facebook page owners to share its content through affiliate links. In return, they earned a share of the ad revenue generated through traffic on WittyFeed’s site.

By 2016, the business had 90 employees in Indore, mostly creating content for the US audiences. By the end of 2017, the bootstrapped firm was clocking INR 40 Cr in revenue and attracting 120 Mn in user traffic.

In November 2018, disaster struck. Facebook suddenly shut down their pages, wiping out WittyFeed’s distribution and revenue overnight.

“The money stopped coming, and we didn’t know what to do,” Vinay recalled.

For three months, the founders paid salaries from savings and loans before offering employees an unusual deal – 25% salary in cash and the rest as equity. Of the total 90 employees, 54 chose to stay.

This was also the time when Vinay’s college senior Harsh Mani Tripathi joined as a cofounder.

How ‘STAGE’ Was Set

While the founders managed to convince most employees to stay back, the road to STAGE did not even exist — until Vinay highlighted a gap in the vernacular content market.

The idea fascinated the other three founders, and all of them sat down on the drawing board to craft their next move.

“In April 2019, we realised there were no regional OTT platforms in India. Therefore, we decided to solve this. We build a platform for artists from different regions and dialects. That’s how the name STAGE was born,” Vinay said.

At the outset, the STAGE founders zeroed in on one language – Haryanvi.

Their strategy was simple: meeting local artists, and urging them to perform — poetry, folk songs, or comedy skits — and, in turn, offer them a modest honorarium of INR 5,000.

Bit by bit, they built an initial content library of over 100 videos, all rooted in Haryana’s culture and dialect.

On November 1, 2019, STAGE officially launched its app. This was also the time when the startup secured a seed funding of INR 1.5 Cr from Venture Catalysts.

The funding infusion became a crucial lifeline for the founders after the collapse of WittyFeed.

Little did the cofounders know that a change of fate was on the anvil, especially with the advent of the pandemic. Just four months into the pandemic, the STAGE app exploded with downloads.

Still, there was a catch — while downloads were through the roof, the revenue needle stayed jammed.

“We soon realised that much of the content they were offering — folk songs, poetry, and local comedy — was already free on YouTube, and monetising required a different approach,” the founder said.

STAGE’s Monetisation Breakthrough

A conversation with local artists and audiences brought to the fore something striking — viewers were willing to pay for structured, high-quality content.

This proved to be the turning point for the startups.

With this, STAGE decided to evolve from being a content library to a full-fledged dialect-based OTT platform, producing original shows and films tailored for regional audiences.

During this time, the startup put its content behind a paywall — INR 199 for a quarterly subscription and INR 349 for an annual subscription.

Following this, the startup saw its paid subscribers grow to 10,000 in a short period of time. Now it was time to unlock new viewers. Therefore, the startup had forayed into the Rajasthani content.

By the end of 2021, the startup was generating INR 30 Lakh per month and had already seen its live user subscription grow to 60K. This momentum also landed the startup on Shark Tank India, boosting downloads and expanding its subscriber base.

By keeping product costs low, around INR 4 Lakh to INR 5 Lakh per movie or show, STAGE has managed to stay agile and efficient. In comparison, most regional OTT platforms spent INR 50 Lakh to INR 1 Cr on regional content, while global players like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video worked with exponentially higher budgets.

UPI Autopayment: A Shot In The Arm

As STAGE continued expanding its content library, producing more original shows and regionally rooted narratives, a key turning point arrived in mid-2023.

In Vinay’s words, the integration of auto payments on the platform was the “booster shot” the startup needed. This seemingly small change became a major operational and revenue breakthrough.

STAGE discontinued its annual plans and introduced an INR 1 seven-day trial, giving users a taste of its content before committing to a paid plan.

“This became a huge revenue unlocker for us. People were curious to see what we had to offer, and that curiosity turned into subscriptions. Our customer retention rate jumped to around 80%,” the founder said

The results were immediate and measurable. With smoother onboarding and recurring payments, customer acquisition cost (CAC) dropped sharply from nearly INR 6K per user to INR 250.

This is when the startup’s operating revenue needle moved to INR 18 Cr in FY24 from INR 3 Cr in FY23.

Before the integration, STAGE had around 5 Lakh paid users. The number almost doubled by March 2024, driven by the convenience of auto payments and the viral word of mouth around its Haryanvi and Rajasthani originals.

Buoyed by this success, the founders felt ready to expand. Having proven that dialect-based storytelling could find loyal audiences, STAGE decided to replicate its model in the Bhojpuri-speaking region.

In early 2025, STAGE officially forayed into the Bhojpuri market. The team began working closely with local artists, writers, and filmmakers to craft authentic stories that resonated with the heartland audience. What started as a bet on Haryana’s dialects was now evolving into a broader mission.

Earlier this year, the startup bagged $12.5 Mn as a part of its Series B funding round, co-led by Goodwater Capital and Blume Ventures.

While the startup’s movie budget has now grown to INR 25 Lakh, still lower than its peers, the fresh capital will help the startup expand content offerings into Avadhi, Maithili and Magahi languages. Moreover, it also intends to experiment with live sports, devotional and kids’ content. The fresh capital will also enhance its micro-drama offerings, launched earlier this year.

With a proven model and fresh funding, STAGE is ready to grow further, putting India’s diverse dialects in the spotlight of digital entertainment.

From Haryanvi to Bhojpuri, and soon Avadhi, Maithili, and Magahi, the platform is reshaping regional storytelling. But can STAGE’s regional-first approach outshine global giants like Amazon and Netflix in India’s diverse streaming market?

Edited By Shishir Parasher

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