Entertainment / CANADA, IT’S TIME TO STREAM DESI: JioHotstar Officially Launches In Canada With Bigg Boss, Blockbusters & More

CANADA, IT’S TIME TO STREAM DESI: JioHotstar Officially Launches In Canada With Bigg Boss, Blockbusters & More

Entertainment Sep 03, 2026

by Team ANOKHI LIFE

JioHotstar launches in Canada with 160K+ hours of entertainment across 12+ Asian languages, including Bigg Boss, films, originals and more.

For Canadian audiences looking for more ways to stay connected to South Asian entertainment, the streaming landscape just got considerably bigger.

JioHotstar officially launched in Canada on September 2, 2026, bringing its expansive mix of films, original series, television, reality programming, kids and family entertainment, and interactive streaming features to Canadian viewers. The Canadian launch forms part of JioHotstar’s wider international expansion, which also includes the UK and Singapore.

Already one of India’s largest media-tech and entertainment platforms, JioHotstar serves more than 500 million users in India. Now, it is taking the entertainment, technology and product experience developed for one of the world’s most diverse viewing markets and introducing it to audiences abroad.

For Canada, that means access to 160,000+ hours of entertainment across more than 12 Asian languages, coupled with technology designed to make streaming more personalised, discoverable and interactive.

A Massie Content Library Built For Multilingual Audiences

JioHotstar’s Canadian catalogue stretches across genres, formats and generations, from movies and original programming to television, non-fiction, reality franchises, and entertainment for kids and families.

Among the titles highlighted at launch are originals including The Court, Ali Baba Aur Chaalis Bhoot, Prince of Mollywood and Part Timers. The wider library also includes acclaimed and popular titles such as Criminal Justice, Special Ops, Chiraiya, Pritam & Pedro, Asur, Aarya, Heartbeat, Vikram on Duty, Kerala Crime Files, Resort and Muthu Alias Kaattaan.

Film fans will also find titles including Dhurandhar, 12th Fail, Chhichhore, Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh, Kill, Jatt & Juliet 1 & 2, Carry On Jatta 3, Shadaa, Sardar Saab, Vaazha and Welcome to The Jungle.

And for viewers who still love the familiarity and ongoing storytelling of Indian television, JioHotstar brings programming from JioStar television channels including Star Plus, Colors, Star Vijay, Asianet, Star Jalsha, Colors Gujarati and Star Pravah.

The platform also offers Before-TV access to select programming, including shows such as Anupama, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Seher Hone Ko Hai, Azhagae Azhagu, Siragadikka Aasai and Cooku with Comali.

<i>Resort</i> (Tamil). Image Credit: JioHotstar — *Resort* (Tamil). Image Credit: JioHotstar

Big Boss Gets A Lot More Interactive

One of the biggest draws of JioHotstar’s Canadian debut is undoubtedly Bigg Boss.

Canadian subscribers get access to six editions of the franchise across multiple languages, including Bigg Boss Hindi, Bigg Boss Tamil, Bigg Boss Malayalam, Bigg Boss Telugu, Bigg Boss Kannada and Bigg Boss Bangla.

The line-up brings some major names with it: Salman Khan hosts the Hindi edition, Vijay Sethupathi hosts Tamil, Mohanlal leads Malayalam, Nagarjuna hosts Telugu and Kichcha Sudeepa fronts Kannada.

But the real shift is in how Canadian audiences can participate.

For the first time, viewers in Canada will have access to LIVE voting across every edition, along with 24×7 LIVE feeds, making it possible to follow the action beyond the traditional edited episodes.

Fans of the Hindi edition get another major advantage: Bigg Boss Hindi will be available on JioHotstar seven days ahead of its Canadian television broadcast.

The reality and entertainment offering extends beyond Bigg Boss, too. JioHotstar’s catalogue includes franchises such as Koffee with Karan, Khatron Ke Khiladi, MTV Hustle, Splitsvilla, Laughter Chefs – Unlimited Entertainment, Roadies, Bhojpuri Bawaal and Cooku with Comali. Anil Kapoor also hosts the new game format India Ka Top 1 Percent, which premiers September 5.

<i>Big Boss</i> (Hindi). Image Credit: JioHotstar — *Big Boss* (Hindi). Image Credit: JioHotstar

A Streaming Experience Designed Around The Viewer

JioHotstar is positioning its Canadian offering as more than a content catalogue.

The platform combines entertainment, technology and data to create a more responsive viewing experience, including personalised recommendations, interactive entertainment features and conversational discovery.

Its interface has also been designed around multilingual discovery, supported by subtitles and dubbing across 12+ Asian languages, including English, Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi.

For a Canadian market made up of communities whose households often move fluidly between languages, genres and cultural reference points, that multilingual approach is particularly significant.

JioHotstar describes the platform as a way of both strengthening connections between South Asian communities abroad and the entertainment they already know, while simultaneously introducing South Asian films, shows, languages and perspectives to broader international audiences.

<i>Night Manager</i> (Hindi). Image Credit: JioHotstar — *Night Manager* (Hindi). Image Credit: JioHotstar

The Scale Behind JioHotstar

The numbers behind JioHotstar help explain the ambition of its international rollout.

The platform operates in an Indian market of approximately 1.4 billion people, reaching audiences across screens, languages and formats. Its footprint extends across 100% of India’s approximately 19,300 pin codes, with more than 500 million users in India.

Its subscriber growth has also been rapid. JioHotstar crossed 100 million subscribers within five weeks of launching in India, subsequently growing to approximately 300 million subscriptions within four months.

The Canadian offering begins with 160K+ hours of entertainment, while JioHotstar’s broader Indian platform currently houses more than 300,000 hours of programming across 19 languages, spanning movies, originals, live sports, live events, anime, kids’ entertainment and television programming from more than 100 channels within the JioStar network.

In Canada, the catalogue is also expected to continue growing, with JioHotstar indicating that its 160K+ hour library is supplemented by approximately 30,000 hours of fresh content every year.

Bringing JioHotstar’s India-Built Streaming Experience To The World

At the centre of JioStar’s international expansion is Amit Malhotra, Head of International Business at JioStar, who leads the company’s growth beyond India across its enterprise business, television networks and JioHotstar streaming service.

Based in Singapore, Malhotra brings more than 25 years of global experience in streaming, media and international market development. His previous leadership experience includes serving as Managing Director of HBO Max for India and Southeast Asia at WarnerMedia and spending 17 years in leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company, where his work included the launch and operation of Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar and Hotstar across the region.

Speaking about the Canadian expansion, Malhotra said, “JioHotstar has been built in one of the world’s most diverse entertainment markets, where audiences move seamlessly between languages, genres and formats. That scale and diversity have shaped how we think about entertainment, and what it takes to create a platform that can serve millions of viewers every day. As we launch in Canada, we are bringing the experience JioHotstar is known for to a market with a strong connection to South Asian culture and content, connecting audiences to the entertainment they love while also inviting everyone to discover new cultures, stories and perspectives.”

Canada, with its strong connection to South Asian culture and entertainment, represents a natural next chapter: connecting viewers with content they already love while giving audiences an opportunity to discover different cultures, stories and perspectives.

Subscription Costs For Canadians

JioHotstar has launched with two subscription options for Canadian viewers:

Quarterly subscription: CAD $19.99
Annual subscription: CAD $49.99

Existing Hotstar subscribers can transition to JioHotstar using their current credentials without interruption to their service. New subscribers can sign up through the App Store and Google Play Store, with the service available across mobile and connected TV devices.

A Bigger Bridge Between South Asia And Canada

For Canada’s substantial South Asian population, the JioHotstar launch is notable not simply because another streaming platform has entered the market.

It brings together scale, language, immediacy and cultural variety in one place: blockbuster Indian cinema alongside regional storytelling; major reality franchises alongside original programming; familiar television alongside Before-TV viewing; and traditional streaming alongside live voting, 24-hour feeds and personalised discovery.

And as JioHotstar expands internationally, its Canadian arrival represents something larger: an entertainment ecosystem built for the extraordinary linguistic and cultural diversity of India now being reimagined for audiences around the world.

For Canadian viewers, the result is considerably more than another app to add to the streaming rotation. It is a new direct line into the breadth of contemporary South Asian entertainment.

Image Credit: JioHotstar

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