Chef Mantra – Project K Season 6 kicks off

Chef Mantra – Project K Season 6 kicked off with a bang on September 10, delivering all-time-high viewership and setting the tone for another exciting season. But this time, the headline isn’t just the show—it’s the impressive roster of brands backing it.

With 12 sponsors and 20+ brand partners coming on board, Season 6 marks a new milestone for aha’s flagship culinary franchise. The scale of brand participation underscores the strong appeal of content-led brand partnerships and the growing confidence brands have in aha’s ability to create meaningful, engaging environments for consumers.

The season features returning celebrity champions defending their titles against a new set of challenger duos, with filmmaker Nandini Reddy joining as judge for her

non-fiction OTT debut. But for the trade, the bigger story is what this scale of brand participation signals about where celebrity-led entertainment IP is headed on OTT.

 A Multi-Category Brand Platform

With 12 sponsors and 20+ brand partners on board, Chef Mantra Season 6 stands out as one of the most brand-dense properties aha has run — and a marker of how far the platform's non-fiction slate has scaled as an advertiser vehicle. The partner list spans Co-Presenting, Co-Powered, Snack, Comfort, Media and Outdoor tiers, pulling in categories as varied as FMCG, beauty, healthcare, hospitality and lifestyle onto a single Property.

That diversity is the point. Rather than a single dominant sponsor, Chef Mantra has built a structure where multiple brands — often direct category competitors — can

co-exist within the same show without diluting each other's visibility, each occupying a distinct integration format suited to its objective.

Why Brands Are Scaling Up With Chef Mantra

For brands, the appeal lies in content environments where advertising doesn't interrupt the experience — it becomes part of it. Chef Mantra's

kitchen-and-competition format creates natural touchpoints across ingredients, challenges and celebrity moments, allowing brands to integrate into content audiences are already engaged with rather than compete for attention against it.

That contextual fit is showing up in how brands are committing: partners are increasingly opting into the property across tiers and, in several cases, across seasons

— treating Chef Mantra less as a one-off media buy and more as a recurring platform to build brand recall alongside a franchise with a loyal, returning viewer base.

The tiered sponsorship model itself is a large part of why the roster has grown this season. By offering distinct entry points — from top-tier Co-Presenting Partnerships down to category-specific Snack and Comfort Partnerships — the show has made it possible for brands with very different budgets and integration needs to all find a place within the same property.

“Chef Mantra has evolved from being a successful entertainment franchise into a powerful brand platform. The response from 12 sponsors and 20+ brand partners this season reflects the trust brands place in the IP, but also the strength of the integration opportunities we are able to create around it. Our focus is not on putting more brands into a show; it is on creating the right content led environment where every brand has a meaningful role to play. That is where we see the future of OTT monetisation,” said Umesh, Senior Vice President, Non Subscription Revenue, aha.

A Property That Reflects aha's Scaling Non-Fiction Slate

Chef Mantra – Project K's growth — from its earlier seasons through to this record brand turnout, and its expansion into Project USA for international audiences — mirrors a broader shift in how far non-fiction entertainment on aha has scaled as a brand platform. What began as a celebrity cooking show has evolved into a franchise brands actively compete to be part of.

For the platform: a successful IP isn't measured only by audience numbers, but by its ability to sustain and grow a diverse base of brand partners season after season. With Season 6 now streaming on aha, Chef Mantra – Project K heads into its most brand-heavy season yet — proof that when content and brand integration are designed together, scale follows on both sides.

 The Season 6 Partner Line-up

Season 6 brings together Value Zone, Hatsun Panneer and Star Health Insurance as Co-Presenting Partners; Freedom, L'Oréal, Tenali Double Horse and V Care as

Co-Powered Partners; Snackster as Snack Partner and Jolaali as Comfort Partner. TV9 comes on board as Media Partner, while Prakash Arts is the Outdoor Partner.

With Season 6 now streaming on aha, Chef Mantra – Project K reflects how a strong non-fiction IP can create room for both audience engagement and diverse brand partnerships as it continues to scale.