Zomato Announces 18 Originals With Sanjeev Kapoor, Sumukhi Suresh, Jordindian Duo, More

Do you think there are too many originals? Well too bad, because there's another new entrant. Zomato — yes, Zomato — has announced its foray into original content with 18 shows over the next three months starting Monday, September 16. Zomato has roped in the likes of celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, anchor Janice Sequeira, and comedians Sumukhi Suresh, Sahil Shah, Neville Shah, Aadar Malik, Kautuk Srivastava, Naser Al Azzeh, and Vineeth Kumar. Zomato Originals have been largely shot in a vertical format, the food app said, which it believes is suited for mobile viewing. Has Zomato not heard of rotating your device? Anyway, all Zomato Originals will revolve around food, naturally.

Though Zomato is touting a total of 18 shows by the end of the year, it has only announced six for now: a daily 3-minute “Food and You with Sanjeev Kapoor”, in which the celebrity chef will use his years of knowledge to “break myths and change the way you think about food and your body.” In “Starry Meals with Janice”, Sequeira will visit Bollywood stars such as Diana Penty, Tapsee Pannu, Aditi Rao Hydari, Rajkummar Rao, Armaan Malik, and the Pandey family: Chunky Pandey, his wife Bhavna, and their daughter Ananya.

That leaves us with the comedians, who are spread across out across four shows. Suresh will look at the basics in “Banake Dikha with Sumukhi Suresh”, Sahil will learn family recipes from grandmothers — including his own — in “Grandmaster Chef with Sahil Shah”, while Neville, Malik, and Srivastava will race against an order — Zomato's, if we'd to guess — in “Race Against the App”. That leaves “Dude, Where's the Food with Jordindian” from Al Azzeh and Kumar. Zomato didn't provide a description for the show except to say, “There's lazy and then there's Jordindian lazy,” which makes it sound like the only fiction series on the list of Zomato Originals yet.

Like with streaming services, all episodes of the aforementioned Zomato Originals — except Kapoor's — will be available Monday. As for episode count, “Food and You with Sanjeev Kapoor” will have a total of 30 episodes, six each for “Starry Meals with Janice” and “Banake Dikha with Sumukhi Suresh”, and four apiece for “Grandmaster Chef with Sahil Shah” and “Race Against the App”. Zomato didn't say how many episodes “Dude, Where's the Food with Jordindian” will have. The remaining 12 shows will expand genres into travel, and will also include hosts and explainers as these do.

If any of that sounds remotely interesting to you, you can watch six Zomato Originals — ranging from 3 to 15 minutes — in a new “Videos” tab available Monday in the new Zomato app, available on iOS and rolling out to everyone on Android. The “Videos” tab will most likely replace the new “Sneak Peek” tab, considering Zomato says the “Sneak Peek” videos will show up alongside Zomato Originals and recipes. At launch on Monday, Zomato says it will have over 2,000 videos. If you're a Zomato fan reading this outside India, you'll be disappointed to know that Zomato Originals are exclusive to India. Probably something to do with rights and what not.

“We combined all things food with binge-worthy genres and came up with a diverse slate of shows,” Zomato's SVP of Growth, Durga Raghunath, said in a prepared statement. “With shows in both Hindi and English, we hope every corner of India will tune in to Zomato to hone their taste buds.”