Clubbing is passé, Bengaluru is now bonding over digital content

BENGALURU: Kirthana Karumbaiah’s Monday morning workplace ritual of chatting with colleagues on the latest TV series has translated into a new weekend leisure activity. The quality control professional at Ajio is jamming up with friends every Friday evening to binge-watch digital content with her group of friends now.

“Bengaluru’s heavy traffic and crowded bars on the weekend do not allow for wholesome conversation with friends. Catching up over a Netflix or Amazon Prime show at home with food and drinks makes for peaceful socialising and helps us step away from the routine,” says Karumbaiah, who catches up on shows like Narcos, The Crown to bilingual Korean and Spanish shows.

Peer groups are socialising over trending digital content at home now. Many youngsters are happy to stay in and watch a digital series with friends at home, preferring that to “monotonous” clubbing, movie and dinner outing.


On Saturday, culinary professional Natasha Hinshaw hosted a marathon screening of Jack Ryan series on Amazon Prime followed by Madam Secretary on Netflix at home for friends over pizza, popcorn and beer.

“Music ban and occasional brawls at Bengaluru’s clubs have left us with limited leisure options in the city. We prefer staying in to socialise in peace. Catching up for a trending digital show leads to fun discussion over the twists of each episode,” says Hinshaw, who adds that youngsters have dedicated informal networking groups to plan and choose the digital show screening they want to attend on the weekend.

Co-working space Bohemian House in Richmond Town is trying to acquire required licences to stream digital shows for employees on the premise.

Varun Hemachandran, future business head at the creative studio, says, “We have observed that digital entertainment is a routine conversation filler these days among co-workers. We want to create communities based on different passions now.”

Experts note that once popular for singular private viewing, the concept of watching digital series has transformed into a groupie experience as the new weekend cool.

Ray Titus, marketing and strategy professor at the Alliance School of Business, says, “Personal digital devices ensure that content is consumed individually most of the time. The need for ‘engaged socialisation’ in the digital era is why there is a shift to on-demand viewing experiences in a group format.”