National, 2nd January 2026: ZEE5 rolled out a comprehensive, multi-touchpoint marketing campaign for Saali Mohabbat, its original crime–mystery thriller, which has emerged as a strong performer on the platform, crossing 100 million watch minutes. Designed to take the film’s layered narrative beyond the screen and into everyday cultural conversations, the campaign was rooted in insight-led storytelling and a digital-first approach. It strategically brought together social media, influencer-led narratives, on-ground spike moments, platform integrations and consumer-facing brand collaborations to build sustained intrigue around the film’s core themes of love, suspicion and betrayal.
As part of the larger marketing effort, ZEE5 partnered with Ferns N Petals in a collaboration organically inspired by the film’s narrative. Over a five-day window during the premiere week, every Ferns N Petals order nationwide carried a personalised note from Radhika Apte encouraging recipients to watch the film on ZEE5, along with a QR code linking to the viewing page. Additionally, specially curated premiere-day hampers featuring plants and select treats were sent to celebrities and influencers, creating a warm, character-led extension of the film’s launch narrative.
Alongside the brand partnership, the launch was amplified through a strong social and digital outreach anchored in the thought “pyaar, khoobsurat bhi aur khatarnak bhi.” The campaign prioritised organic, culturally resonant conversations over overt promotion. A key activation reimagined the film’s ‘poisonous’ flower as a storytelling device, with micro-influencers gifting a distinctive black rose to their partners as a symbolic warning. The striking visual, echoing the film’s dark humour, travelled organically across feeds. Recall was further strengthened through a temporary Saali Mohabbat–inspired redesign of the ZEE5 logo across launch touchpoints.
Momentum was elevated through immersive spike activities and creator-led storytelling. A staged couple argument in a public setting, designed to feel spontaneous, blurred fiction and reality before revealing its link to Saali Mohabbat, generating intrigue at scale. In parallel, collaborations with poet Keshav Jha and targeted activations within crime and thriller-focused YouTube communities drove genre-led conversations, reinforcing credibility and word of mouth.
Collectively, the campaign delivered 12M+ reach across platforms, combining high-impact influencer moments, disruptive spike activations, and genre-focused community engagement, ultimately driving sustained cross-platform chatter and helping Saali Mohabbat trend across social and media conversations.
Speaking about the campaign, Kartik Mahadev, Chief Marketing Officer, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd said, “At ZEE5, we view every launch as a chance to build a relevant cultural narrative around the story, creating memorable moments. Our approach creates a flow of content between online and offline platform ecosystems where platform innovation, distribution surfaces, creators, and culture work in sync to make content both easier to discover and more rewarding to engage with. For Saali Mohabbat, we orchestrated high impact connected TV visibility, creator-driven storytelling, and real-world spike moments that carried the content emotion beyond the screen. This big idea led integration helped build curiosity and sustained engagement at scale delivering millions of meaningful reach moments and a launch experience that felt immersive, and unmistakably ZEE5.”
Avi Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, Ferns N Petals said, “At FNP, we believe the strongest collaborations come from emotion, not marketing briefs. Saali Mohabbat gave us a character whose love for plants felt honest and deeply human. Bringing that into our everyday gifting experiences allowed us to extend Smita’s world beyond the screen—turning each delivery into a small, heartfelt invitation to discover her story on ZEE5”.
Saali Mohabbat is a ZEE5 Original how-dunnit thriller that follows Smita, portrayed by Radhika Apte, a seemingly ordinary housewife whose quiet life is shattered by a shocking double murder, pulling her into a web of suspicion, secrets and psychological intrigue. The film also stars Divyenndu and Anurag Kashyap and marks the directorial debut of Tisca Chopra. Saali Mohabbat is the first-ever collaboration between ZEE5 and Manish Malhotra’s Stage5 Productions and premiered exclusively on ZEE5 on December 12, 2025.
