General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Live Telecast

Live Telecast (லைவ் டெலிகாஸ்ட்) is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language horror web series written and directed by Venkat Prabhu and released on Disney+ Hotstar on 12 February 2021¹. Its seven episodes follow a television crew whose live ghost-hunting broadcast in a haunted house goes wrong when the crew is trapped inside by the supernatural presence they meant to film¹^•². The series marked the digital debut of its lead actress Kajal Aggarwal and of its director¹.

Key fact	Detail
Format	Tamil-language horror web series, 7 episodes, Disney+ Hotstar Special¹
Release	12 February 2021 on Disney+ Hotstar VIP¹
Creator	Written and directed by Venkat Prabhu, his first web series¹
Lead cast	Kajal Aggarwal as director Jennifer Matthew, with Vaibhav Reddy, Kayal Anandhi, Priyanka, Selva, Daniel Annie Pope, Subbu Panchu Arunachalam, Premgi Amaren, and Yogi Babu¹^•³
Producer	V Rajalakshmi¹
Episode length	About 29 to 41 minutes per episode⁴
Reception	Times of India 2.5/5, Cinema Express 2/5, Filmibeat 2.5/5; IMDb 4.1 from about 1,500 votes²^•⁵^•⁶

Spoilers

Premise and plot

The series centers on Jennifer Matthew, called Jenny, the ambitious director of a television show named Dark Tales, which retells real-life paranormal stories⁷^•⁸. After her show is taken off-air following a risqué episode, Jenny accepts her team's proposal for a new format: visiting haunted places and capturing a ghost on camera in a live telecast².

The crew chooses a haunted house on a hillside in Yelagiri where a mother, played by Priyanka, lives with her two children²^•⁷. They even hire a couple of actors to fake ghosts in case the real thing does not appear². Once filming of the live episode begins, the ghost in the house traps the crew inside, cutting off all communication and preventing them from leaving while millions of viewers watch the broadcast²^•¹.

The seven episodes carry the arc from setup to climax: The Introduction, The Failure, The Prep, The Show, The Trap, The Escape, and The Climax⁷. In the later episodes a police officer, ACP Guru, tries and fails to help the trapped crew, and Jenny makes a compromise before the culprit behind the crew's ordeal appears in the finale⁷.

Cast and characters

Kajal Aggarwal plays Jennifer Matthew, a director whose single-minded goal is to make a successful TV show; the actress described the role as pushing her out of her comfort zone¹. The ensemble includes Vaibhav Reddy as the art director Sekar, Kayal Anandhi as makeup artist Kalai, and Daniel Annie Pope as anchor Aravind, with Premgi Amaren and Yogi Babu also in the cast¹³^•³. Priyanka plays the mother living in the haunted house².

Production

Venkat Prabhu, known for the Tamil films Chennai 600028, Saroja, and Biriyani, developed the project for Hotstar¹. He described it as a dream project: he had written the story much earlier, before his debut film, and had originally wanted to make it as his first feature²^•¹. India Today reported that the script dated to 2005 and that the title card itself shows a diary with 2005 written on it⁹.

Shooting had reportedly commenced by September 2019, and the title was reported in January 2020, when the project was still expected as a ten-part series¹⁰. In an August 2020 interaction, Prabhu confirmed the title and the seven-episode count, saying the series was shot much like a film and that he had treated it in a localized way so that audiences in towns and villages could connect with it, unlike the screenplay patterns of series such as Money Heist or Sacred Games¹¹.

The show-within-the-show, Dark Tales, parodies the controversial Tamil talk show Solvathellam Unmai, in which ordinary people discuss private family matters on stage; Dark Tales instead invites people to share close encounters with the uncanny¹²^•⁴.

Reception

Critical response was largely negative. The Times of India gave the season 2.5 out of 5, calling it a disappointment given the talents involved: the characters were one-note and strictly functional, and the plotting hit expected notes in expected ways, drawing on horror tropes familiar from films such as Kanchana 2². Cinema Express rated it 2 out of 5, acknowledging an interesting premise and the series's jabs at TRP wars (competition over Indian television audience ratings) and journalistic insensitivity, but judging that the final three episodes could have been condensed into two and that the final twist became a damp squib⁵. Filmibeat gave 2.5 out of 5, praising Aggarwal's performance while faulting loose script and dialogue writing⁸. The Indian Express review was harsher, finding not a single moment of emotional value across the seven episodes¹².

Audience aggregates reflect the same pattern: the series holds an IMDb rating of 4.1 from about 1,500 votes, and it spent 109 days in the JustWatch Top 1000 streaming charts in India without reaching the Top 10⁶. As of recent checks it streams on JioHotstar and VI movies and tv⁶.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Indian and South Asian web series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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