Netflix has packaged the latest episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show Season 5 as a film launch, with the cast of The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest joining Kapil Sharma for an episode built around paranormal stories. Sidharth Malhotra, Tamannaah Bhatia, Shweta Tiwari, Anup Soni and Maniesh Paul appear together tonight at 8:00 PM.
The episode carries the film without a hard sell
The format uses ghost stories rather than a traditional film segment. Kapil asks the guests whether they have experienced paranormal activity. Tamannaah Bhatia says she is more afraid of humans than ghosts. Shweta Tiwari says she has never believed in spirits despite hearing accounts from people who claim to have communicated with them. Kapil’s response becomes a joke: people who seem to have direct access to spirits often cannot help humans communicate with each other.
Sidharth Malhotra recalls Delhi childhood stories about a supposedly haunted house near where he played hide-and-seek, with strange noises and unexplained incidents that frightened the children. Maniesh Paul says he is genuinely scared of ghosts, sleeps with the lights on, and recounts that his daughter, when younger, repeatedly said an “aunty” was sitting in the room.
- Guest list as promotion: Five principal cast members are integrated into the regular talk-show format.
- Genre hook: Paranormal anecdotes give the episode a shareable angle that does not read as advertising.
- Title reinforcement: Sidharth and Tamannaah dance to Thumak Thumak, carrying The Vvaan onto the stage.
Why this matters for streaming and film marketers
For media planners and entertainment marketers, this is a low-friction model: Netflix owns the show, the audience and the placement, so the promotion does not require a separate media buy. The film title is embedded in conversation and performance, not bolted on. That is the OTT version of a legacy late-night film appearance, with the difference that the platform controls the full funnel.
No viewership figures or box-office data are shared before the 8:00 PM premiere, so the immediate signal is strategic rather than statistical. The tell is the episode itself: a major title gets a themed talk-show spot designed to generate clips and social moments.
For teams planning a title launch, the play is to treat a talk-show appearance as an owned-media asset. Brief the cast with one repeatable anecdote, keep the film in the background of the conversation, and add one performance moment that travels as a clip.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
