Prasar Bharati’s ‘Curly Tales’: When influencer content was created with government money and rules were ignored

of India public broadcaster prasar bharti An unusual and controversial case has come to light, which has raised serious questions on the relationship between government media, private production houses and the influencer ecosystem. According to the report of News Laundry, this is the case of the ₹6.09 crore documentary series ‘India in Motion’, which was prepared to publicize the government’s achievements, but many rules were seen broken in its implementation.

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‘India in Motion’ premiered on DD National in March 2024. This documentary series was anchored by famous travel influencer Kamiya Jani. The series showed the development work done in road, rail and aviation sectors during the tenure of Modi government. However, within hours of the broadcast, the same episodes also started appearing on private YouTube channels like Curly Tales and Mashable India. This is where the controversy started and questions started being raised within Prasar Bharati as to how government content reached private platforms.

₹6.09 crore contract and selection of Softline

According to the report of News Laundry, on December 4, 2023, Prasar Bharati gave this contract to Softline Studio Services Limited. The selection was done by a seven-member committee, which was headed by Deputy Director General (Sales) Sanjay Prasad. This committee included program executives from Prasar Bharati as well as nominated members from the Ministries of Railways, Roads and Aviation. Softline was selected after presentations from eight empaneled companies.

Did someone else do the work? Angle of Fork Media

The biggest question arose when it came to light that even though Softline had got the contract, many people involved in the work were associated with Fork Media Group. The director and CEO of Fork Media is Sammar Verma, who is also Kamiya Jani’s husband. According to the rules, transfer of production work to any other agency is not allowed in the contract of Prasar Bharati. Despite this, names associated with Curly Tales and Mashable India appeared in the credit rolls and staff details.

Government documentary published on private channels: Copyright violation

The episodes uploaded on Curly Tales and Mashable India were the same ones that aired on DD National. According to News Laundry, this was a clear violation of Prasar Bharati’s copyright and third party rules. Prasar Bharati’s own internal documents also acknowledged that sharing and subletting of content was against the terms of the contract.

Most shocking aspect: Papers later, violations first

The most surprising thing in this case is that the agreement, work completion letter and indemnity bond were all signed on 17 May 2024, whereas the videos were aired in March 2024, uploaded on private channels and the selection process was completed in December 2023. That means first the content was published, then the papers were prepared as per the rules.

Publicity of achievements of Modi government, but no mention of ministers

Projects like Chenab Bridge, Atal Setu, highway network, new airport and railway improvements were shown in the documentary. Almost every episode included excerpts from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches. However, it is worth noting that the name of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav was not there in the Railway episode, whereas Nitin Gadkari was missing in the Road Sector episode. There was no mention of Jyotiraditya Scindia in the aviation episode.

Rush of release before Lok Sabha elections and model code

News Laundry learned from sources that the reason for releasing these episodes in the same week was the Lok Sabha elections. A preview screening took place on 13 March 2024, after which the then DD DG Kanchan Prasad suggested that these should be telecast before the model code was implemented. The Model Code came into effect on 16 March and the second and third episodes were broadcast on DD National on the same day.

Objections, Warnings and Payment Stuck

On June 14, 2024, DD DG Amar Singh wrote a letter to Softline warning that strict action could be taken against contract violation. During this period the payment also got stuck. The reasons for this were the objections raised within Prasar Bharati, pending approval of ₹2.62 crore from the Road Ministry and ₹1.57 crore from the Aviation Ministry and deduction of ₹24.3 lakh for not giving bank guarantee.

Sudden settlement and case closed

In November 2025, after about one and a half years, Prasar Bharati suddenly decided to close the case. The letter sent by Deputy DG Shantanu Batabyal said that the content was used only for “promotional” purposes, there was no “commercial intent” and Prasar Bharati would get 50% of the earnings from YouTube. Therefore the warning of June 14 is cancelled. It was clearly written in the letter that now no further action will be taken in this matter.

Did outsourcing happen against the rules?

According to the rules, this project could be given only to those agencies empaneled with the Central Bureau of Communication or NFDC. Softline was empaneled, but not Fork Media and its channels. Despite this, many crew members were found associated with Curly Tales and Mashable India. Mashable India director Siddharth Alambayan was also found to be associated with Fork Media.

Questions were asked, answers were not received

Newslaundry sent questions to Prasar Bharti CEO Gaurav Dwivedi, Kamiya Jani, director of Mashable India. But no detailed answer has emerged. Softline directors Sanjay Bansal and Sammar Verma also refused to comment.