Data Privacy Notice

1. About This Notice

The Big Break is a multi-platform talent property covering acting, singing and dancing. In Phase 1, you enter by sending a collaboration request or other Entry Content to one of our Official Channels, or by submitting through our website.

Whichever route you use, we collect some personal data about you. This notice explains exactly what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it. It is written to meet Section 5 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”) and Rule 3 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 (the “DPDP Rules”).

This notice stands on its own — you do not need to read any other document to understand it. Capitalised terms that are not defined here have the meaning given to them in the Phase 1 Terms & Conditions of Participation (the “Terms”), which you accept when you submit Entry Content.

This notice covers Phase 1 only. If you are shortlisted for Phase 2, you will be asked to sign separate agreements and you will be given a further privacy notice covering that stage.

Available in other languages

If you would like this notice in Hindi, or in another language listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, write to help@thebigbreak.in and we will provide it.

2. Who We Are

Under the Terms, three parties together make up the “Organisers”, and they are jointly responsible for your personal data:

Wherever this notice says “we”, “us” or “our”, it means the Organisers. “You” means you — the DPDP Act calls you the Data Principal, and it calls us Data Fiduciaries.

You do not have to work out which of the three holds your data. Send any question, request or complaint to help@thebigbreak.in. The Producer will coordinate the response and answer on behalf of all three.

3. Who This Notice Applies To

This notice applies to you if you:

• Send a collaboration request, tagged post, upload or any other Entry Content to an Official Channel of The Big Break — that is, our verified handles on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook;
• Submit an application or Entry Content through www.thebigbreak.in or through an application form we publish;
• Disclose an existing management, artist, recording or engagement contract to us under Clause 3.6 of the Terms;
• Follow the official The Big Break WhatsApp Channel;
• Sign up for updates or marketing from The Big Break;
• Write to us at hello@thebigbreak.in or help@thebigbreak.in;
• Appear in someone else’s Entry Content;
• Are shortlisted and move towards Phase 2; or
• Visit our website.

It does not cover the social media platforms themselves. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp handle your data under their own privacy policies, which we do not control. As Clause 5.4 of the Terms records, The Big Break is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by YouTube, Google LLC, Meta Platforms, Inc. or any other platform.

4. The Personal Data We Collect

The DPDP Rules require an itemised list rather than a vague summary. Here it is.

4.1 When you enter through a social media Official Channel

Phase 1 entries mainly arrive as collaboration requests. When you send one, we receive:

• Your social media handle, display name and profile picture
• Your public profile information and the public content on your account
• The Entry Content itself — your video, audio, images, captions, performance and likeness
• The metadata the platform attaches, such as the date and time of your request
• Any direct messages, comments or replies you send us on that channel

4.2 When you apply through our website or application form

• Your email address
• Your full name
• Your mobile number, including country code
• Your date of birth
• Your active WhatsApp number
• Your gender — you may choose “Prefer not to say”
• Links to your Instagram and Facebook profiles
• The discipline you are entering — acting, singing or dancing
• Your agreement to receive audition communications and marketing updates by WhatsApp and SMS
• Your acceptance of the Terms, and the date and time you accepted them

We do not ask for your home address at this stage. You submit a separate entry for each discipline, so if you enter more than one we will hold a separate record for each.

4.3 Eligibility and verification data

Clause 3 of the Terms sets eligibility conditions, and we need some data to check them:

• Your date of birth or age, to confirm you met the age requirement in Clause 3.2 of the Terms — that is, you were 18 or older on 2 August 2026, or you had attained the age of 18 by the date you submitted your entry
• Your citizenship and country of residence, and where you are not ordinarily resident in India, confirmation that you accept responsibility for your own travel and visa arrangements under Clause 3.1A of the Terms
• Whether you are an employee, director, officer, contractor, agent or immediate family member of any of the Organisers, a sponsor, or an agency engaged on the property
• Details of any subsisting exclusive management, artist, recording or engagement contract you disclose to us under Clause 3.6
• Information we need to check that your performance is genuine and unaided, as Clause 7.7 of the Terms requires

4.4 If you progress towards Phase 2

Clause 10.2 of the Terms makes progression conditional on background and eligibility verification and on producing identity and age documentation. If you reach that stage we will collect:

• Government-issued identity and age proof
• The results of background and eligibility verification
• Emergency contact details
• Travel, accommodation and scheduling details
• Visa or entry permission status, if you are not ordinarily resident in India.
• Health or accessibility information you volunteer so we can make arrangements for you
• Bank account and PAN details, if anything becomes payable to you
• Signed agreements, releases and consent records

We will tell you what we need and why at the point we ask for it, and we will issue a separate privacy notice for Phase 2.

4.5 Updates and marketing

• Your name and contact details
• Your communication preferences, and the record of when you opted in or out

4.6 Website and technical data

• Your IP address
• Device type, operating system and browser
• Pages you viewed, time spent, and the site you arrived from
• Cookie identifiers, as described at Section 17

4.7 What we do not want

Do not send us passwords, financial account credentials, or personal data about anyone else — except where Clause 7.3 of the Terms requires you to produce the written consent of a third person who appears in your Entry Content. If you send us information we did not ask for, we will delete it.

5. Why We Use Your Personal Data

Clause 9.9 of the Terms sets out the purposes at a high level. Here they are in full. Section 6 explains the legal basis for each, and Section 12 sets out how long we keep the data.

We will not use your personal data for a new purpose unrelated to those above without telling you first and, where the law requires it, asking for your consent.

6. Our Legal Basis

Under the DPDP Act we process personal data on the basis of your consent (Section 6) or for certain legitimate uses (Section 7).

6.1 Consent

Most of what we do rests on your consent. You give it by submitting Entry Content, which under Clause 2.2 of the Terms is your electronic acceptance for the purposes of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Your consent is free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous, and is given by a clear affirmative action.

The application form asks you to agree to two things in a single tick: receiving communications about your audition — updates, shortlisting and scheduling — by WhatsApp and SMS, and receiving marketing updates, news, daily briefs and future audition calls.

You can separate the two at any time after you apply. Write to help@thebigbreak.in, or reply STOP to a marketing message, and we will stop the marketing while continuing to send you what you need about your audition. Opting out of marketing has no effect on your entry and no effect on how the Mentors and Judges assess it.

6.2 Legitimate uses

We rely on Section 7 in a small number of situations: where we must comply with a legal obligation, a court order or a direction from a governmental authority; where we need to respond to a medical emergency or a threat to life or safety; and where processing is necessary in the interest of public order or safety.

7. The Big Break Season 1 Is for Adults Only

7.1 How we check, and what happens if you are under 18

The application form states the 18+ requirement at the top and again against the date of birth question. We ask for your date of birth for one reason: to confirm you meet the age requirement in Clause 3.2 of the Terms. You meet it if you were 18 or older on 2 August 2026, or if you had attained the age of 18 by the date you submitted your entry. If you had not, then in line with Clause 3.3 of the Terms:

• Your Entry Content will be rejected and deleted.
• Your application will be disqualified.
• We will delete the personal data we collected from you, other than the minimum record we need to show why the entry was rejected and to stop the same entry being resubmitted.

The same applies if a minor appears in your Entry Content, including in the background. Clause 7.3 of the Terms requires that every third person appearing in your Entry Content has given unequivocal written consent and is over 18. If you cannot produce that consent on demand, the Entry Content will be removed.

7.2 What we will never do

Section 9 of the DPDP Act prohibits it, and we do not do it:

• We do not track or behaviourally monitor children.
• We do not direct targeted advertising at children.
• We do not process a child’s personal data in any way likely to have a detrimental effect on the child’s wellbeing.

If you believe someone under 18 has submitted an entry, or that a minor appears in Entry Content on one of our channels, tell us at help@thebigbreak.in and we will act on it.

8. Your Social Media Handles, and the WhatsApp Channel

8.1 The WhatsApp Channel

We run an official The Big Break Channel on WhatsApp. Following it is entirely voluntary and separate from your entry — you find it through our promotions and choose to follow it. We never add anyone to it, including from the application form.

We do not use anything about the Channel to identify, profile or assess applicants. Following it tells us nothing about your entry and we do not connect the two.

Following the Channel has no bearing on your entry. Nothing about your application, your shortlisting or how the Mentors and Judges assess you depends on it, and everything you actually need to know about your audition comes to you directly on the number you gave us.

WhatsApp is operated by Meta Platforms, Inc. and its group companies. Your use of the Channel, including what Meta records about your account, is governed by Meta’s own terms and privacy policy, which we do not control.

8.2 The WhatsApp number you give us on the form

This is a separate thing from the Channel. The number you enter on the application form is used by us to message you directly — audition updates, shortlisting and scheduling, and the marketing you agreed to. That is a one-to-one conversation between you and us, it is covered by the consent you gave on the form, and you can stop it at any time by replying STOP or writing to help@thebigbreak.in.

8.3 Your social media handles and public content

Phase 1 runs on social media, so your handle and your public profile are central to it. We use them for three purposes and no others:

• To receive and identify your entry, since collaboration requests arrive through your account.
• To confirm you are a real person operating a genuine account, as Clause 3.4 of the Terms requires, and to check for the kind of material that clause rules out.
• To tag, credit and cross-promote you if your Entry Content is featured.

We look only at what is publicly visible. We do not request access to private accounts, we never ask for your password, and we do not use automated tools to scrape or build a behavioural profile of you.

Please remember that a collaboration request is a public act on the platform. Anyone who can see your account can see that you entered. We cannot make that private, and the platform’s own privacy policy governs it.

9. Entry Content, Publication and What Cannot Be Undone

Your Entry Content is both personal data and creative content. This notice governs the personal data. The rights side — who may use the footage, where, for how long, and on what terms — is governed by Clause 9 of the Terms. Please read it carefully; nothing in this notice replaces it.

In summary, and as Clause 9 of the Terms provides: you keep ownership of the copyright in your original performance; you grant the Organisers an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and sub-licensable licence to use and exploit the Entry Content; you consent to the use of your name, image, voice, likeness, biographical details, statements, city of residence and audition footage in connection with the property and its promotion; no fee or royalty is payable to you for Phase 1; and you waive your moral rights under Section 57 of the Copyright Act, 1957 to the fullest extent the law permits.

If your Entry Content is not accepted or not used, it is deleted in line with Section 12.

10. Who We Share Your Personal Data With

We share your personal data only where it is necessary for the purposes at Section 5, and only with the recipients below. We do not sell your personal data.

Everyone who processes personal data on our behalf is bound by a written contract that limits what they may do with it, requires them to keep it secure, and requires them to delete or return it when their work for us ends. Under Section 8(2) of the DPDP Act we remain responsible for your personal data even when a Data Processor is handling it for us.

11. Data Stored Outside India

We are an Indian production. We have no offices, staff or representatives outside India, and we do not sell or send your personal data to anyone abroad.

Some of the platforms and tools we use do store data on servers outside India — Google, which hosts our application form and provides our website analytics through Google Analytics 4, and Meta, which operates Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Section 16 of the DPDP Act permits this, and we do not use any provider based in a country or territory that the Central Government has restricted.

12. How Long We Keep Your Personal Data

We keep personal data only for as long as the purpose it was collected for is still being served, then we erase it — unless a law requires us to keep it longer. This reflects Section 8(7) of the DPDP Act and Rule 8 of the DPDP Rules.

Where Rule 8 applies to us, we will tell you at least 48 hours before we erase your data, so you have a chance to keep your record active or exercise your rights first.

13. How We Protect Your Personal Data

We run no servers of our own. Your application details sit inside our Google Workspace account, and everything else reaches us through the social platforms themselves. We keep access to the application data limited to the people who need it to run the selection process, protect those accounts with multi-factor authentication, and require confidentiality from everyone on the team, including the Mentors and Judges and the crew. Rule 6 of the DPDP Rules requires reasonable security safeguards, and these are ours.

No system is perfectly secure. We keep this under review and tighten it as risks change.

14. If There Is a Data Breach

If your application data is exposed, lost or accessed by someone who should not have it, Rule 7 of the DPDP Rules requires us to act quickly. We will tell you without delay, using the contact details we hold, and explain what happened, what it means for you and what to do about it. We will notify the Data Protection Board of India without delay and file a detailed report within 72 hours of becoming aware, or within any longer period the Board allows. Then we fix the cause and take steps to stop it happening again.

15. Your Rights

Under Chapter III of the DPDP Act you can ask us what personal data we hold about you and who we have shared it with (Section 11); ask us to correct or update it (Section 12); ask us to delete it (Section 12); complain to us about how we have handled it (Section 13); nominate someone to exercise these rights for you if you die or become unable to (Section 14); and withdraw your consent at any time (Section 6(4)). All of this is free, and we will not treat your entry any differently for asking.

15.1 How to exercise your rights

Email help@thebigbreak.in with “Data Privacy / DPDP Request” in the subject line. To help us find your record, tell us:

• Your full name
• The social media handle you submitted from, and the date of submission
• The mobile number you applied with, if you used the website form
• The discipline you entered — acting, singing or dancing
• Which right you want to exercise, and what you would like us to do

We may ask you to verify your identity before we act, so that we do not disclose your data to someone pretending to be you. We aim to respond within 30 days, and in any event within the period published under our grievance redressal system, which cannot exceed 90 days.

15.2 One thing erasure cannot do

If you ask us to erase your data, we will. But erasure does not cancel the licence you granted at Clause 9.3 of the Terms in Entry Content already submitted or published, and it does not require us to withdraw material already broadcast. We will always tell you where that applies to a specific request.

15.3 Your duties

Section 15 of the DPDP Act asks you not to impersonate anyone else, not to suppress material information when submitting, not to register a false or frivolous complaint, and to give only authentic information when asking us to correct or erase your data. Clause 8.3 of the Terms says much the same thing.

16. How to Withdraw Your Consent

You can withdraw your consent at any time, and it must be as easy to withdraw as it was to give. To do so:

• Email help@thebigbreak.in with “Data Privacy / DPDP Request” in the subject line and tell us what you are withdrawing
• Reply STOP to any WhatsApp or SMS message from us
• Click the unsubscribe link at the foot of any marketing email
• Unfollow our WhatsApp Channel from your own device — you do not need to tell us

When you withdraw consent we stop the processing that relied on it, and we ask our processors to do the same. Three things to be aware of, which mirror Clause 9.9 of the Terms:

• Withdrawal takes effect prospectively. It does not make unlawful anything we did while your consent was valid.
• Withdrawing consent to process your entry ends your participation in Phase 1.
• Withdrawal does not affect the licence granted at Clause 9.3 in respect of Entry Content already submitted or published, and we may still keep and use data where a law requires it or where we need it to establish or defend a legal claim.

17. Cookies and Website Analytics

www.thebigbreak.in uses cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies make the site work and load by default. Analytics, preference and marketing cookies load only if you accept them through our cookie banner.

The analytics tool we use is Google Analytics 4, operated by Google LLC. It records the technical data listed at Section 4.6 — your IP address, device type, operating system and browser, the pages you viewed, how long you spent and the site you arrived from. It does not run until you accept analytics cookies, and it is not used to identify you personally or to build a profile of you.

You can change your cookie choices at any time through the cookie settings link in the footer of www.thebigbreak.in, or clear and block cookies through your browser settings.

18. Grievance Redressal

If you are unhappy with anything we have done with your personal data, tell us first. We would rather fix it than have you go to the regulator.

Please include your name, contact details, the handle you submitted from, the date of submission, a clear description of the grievance and any supporting material — the same information Clause 15.2 of the Terms asks for.

Rule 9 of the DPDP Rules requires us to publish the contact details of the person who can answer questions about how we process your personal data. Those details are above and on our website at www.thebigbreak.in/privacy.

19. Complaint to the Data Protection Board of India

If we do not resolve your grievance, or you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India, established under Chapter V of the DPDP Act and functioning as a digital office. Details of how to file a complaint are published by the Board on its official website. You may appeal a decision of the Board to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal under Section 29 of the DPDP Act.

You are ordinarily expected to raise the matter with us first.

20. Changes to This Notice

We will update this notice when the way we handle personal data changes, or when the law changes. The version number and effective date on the first page tell you which version you are reading, and the version published at www.thebigbreak.in/privacy prevails.

If we make a change that materially affects you, we will tell you directly before it takes effect and, where the change requires it, ask for fresh consent.

21. Contact Us

Please state the purpose in the subject line so your message is routed correctly. Do not send personal data or rights requests through social media direct messages — those inboxes are managed by the channel team. Use the email addresses above.

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