How to Bypass Hotstar’s Geo-restrictions?

You are on a foreign trip & you don’t want to miss your favorite amazing show, so you open Hotstar & get an error message saying, ‘This content is not available in your region.’ You get annoyed & your foreign trip is no more fun. What if I say that it can be avoided?



The error message was shown to you because the content is geo-blocked outside India. Your Geo-location is traced by the IP address of the device that you use while streaming. If you live anywhere except India, Hotstar will not work for you. You can bypass this restriction using two ways.

Using a Virtual Private Network

One of them is using a VPN connection. A VPN service creates a network between its server & your device making the IP address of your device configurable to an Indian server’s IP address. After connecting to a VPN, all the traffic that is shared seems as if transferred through an Indian location. You can then watch your favorite content on Android, Mac, PC or iPhone.

Here’s how to proceed:

➢ Subscribe to a VPN service that has its servers based in India so that your IP address can be configured accordingly.
➢ Download the VPN application of the VPN service you subscribed to on the device you want to bypass the restrictions.
➢ Open the app and select ‘India’ from the list of regions you’re shown.
➢ Connect to the server & you’re done. Now, Open Hotstar and enjoy watching the videos.

Using VPN, not only Hotstar but other services like SonyLIV, Star Sports, etc. can also be accessed which are otherwise inaccessible in some regions.

When it comes to speed, connecting to a VPN lowers your speed by a certain level which can be irritating sometimes if the video starts buffering. You have to be really careful while selecting a VPN service. The VPN provider should offer a good speed as well as more number of server locations so that you get a fast & efficient connection.

ExpressVPN offers you some of the fastest servers in India. There are some other VPN providers like NordVPN, BulletVPN, IPVanish, etc. which you can look upon.

Using a SmartDNS Proxy

One of the non-complex ways of bypassing the geo restrictions is DNS tunneling. SmartDNS Proxy helps you by hiding your device’s IP address from the services like Netflix & Hotstar and make it look like you’re accessing the service from within the United States.

Compared to VPN, it offers greater speed, but then it doesn’t encrypt the data making it vulnerable so that anyone can have its access.

You can find SmartDNS on the internet for free, but for a better service, it is recommended to purchase a premium proxy. You may want to try a monthly subscription first.

Which method to choose?

Given that there are two ways available, which one is the most appropriate? Well, you should go with VPN considering the security it provides in addition to the freedom to browse any content, The data is properly encrypted to make sure that it is not accessed by anyone else. The only disadvantage it has is the low speed which can be bearable to some extent if you get a good VPN service.

On the other hand, SmartDNS make the traffic vulnerable to threats where hackers & other cybercriminals can easily get access to it. Though it doesn’t affect the browsing speed, your privacy is at stake.

Other benefits of VPN

Getting a VPN connection is great if you miss watching your favorite shows while traveling. But it has some other benefits too.

➢ Be Anonymous: All the web activity including your browsing, streaming, browser history, etc. will be hidden from everyone. Not even the authorities could see that.
*Note that we do not promote doing illegal activities online. Privacy should not be misused.
➢ Configure your IP: For any reason, if you need an IP address from another location, VPN is useful.
➢ Control Access from anywhere: In case if an organization, its information can be accessed from any other place using VPN.

That being said, get a VPN connection right now to avoid annoying situations later. Choose the best plan that suits your needs & enjoy online anonymity along with Hotstar.

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