Terms of Use

Last updated: September 7, 2026

Welcome to BuddyCinemas. These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the BuddyCinemas website, mobile applications, and streaming service (together, the "Service"). Please read them carefully — by creating an account, continuing as a guest, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

1. Who We Are

BuddyCinemas is a streaming platform for shorts, short-series, series, and films. The Service is operated by two group entities, depending on where you are:

• Newtact Lab Private Limited — an Indian private limited company with its registered office at 12th Floor, Manjeera Trinity Corporate, Geek Space Business Centre, Near Lulu Mall, KPHB Phase 3, Hyderabad, Telangana 500072, India — operates the Service for users located in India, and is the billing entity for Indian payments (GST-invoiced, processed via Razorpay/Cashfree).
• Thaja FZE LLC, a company established in the United Arab Emirates — owns the BuddyCinemas brand and intellectual property, and operates the Service (including billing, VAT-invoiced, processed via Stripe) for users located outside India ("Rest of World" or "ROW").

References to "we", "us", or "BuddyCinemas" mean whichever of these two entities applies to you based on your registered or detected country. Payments on both gateways appear on your statement as BUDDYCINEMAS.

2. Eligibility & Accounts

• You must be able to form a binding contract in your jurisdiction to create a registered account. If you are a minor, a parent or legal guardian must accept these Terms on your behalf and supervise your use of the Service, including any Kids profile and parental PIN controls we provide.
• A registered account is required to watch. You may browse the catalogue, search it, and read every title's details as a guest — an anonymous session created automatically on your device (via a signed cookie or device identifier), without providing any personal information — but playback, earning Tokens, and saving a list all require you to sign in. An account is free. Anything a guest session holds is merged into your account when you register (see our Privacy Policy).
• You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. Tell us immediately at hello@buddycinemas.com if you suspect unauthorized access.
• One account is intended for one individual (or one household, where a plan explicitly allows profiles for household members). We may limit the number of simultaneous streams and registered devices per account (see §6).

3. The Content We Provide

BuddyCinemas offers Shorts, Short-Series, Series (organized as Season → Episode), Films, and Trailers, sourced directly and through content partners/producers. Content availability varies by title, territory, license window, and your access method (subscription, rental, purchase, or token unlock), and may change over time as licenses expire or renew. Age ratings are applied per title/territory (broadly aligned to India's U / UA / A classification scheme) so you and any parent or guardian can make informed viewing choices; you can restrict a profile with a parental PIN to hide mature-rated titles.

4. Subscriptions, Rentals, Purchases & Tokens

The Service uses several access models, which may be combined:

• Subscription (SVOD): recurring plans that unlock ad-reduced or ad-free access to eligible catalog content for the plan's duration. Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing cycle at the then-current price unless cancelled before renewal (see our Refund & Cancellation Policy).
• Rental (TVOD): pay once to watch a specific title for a limited window (typically 24–72 hours) from first play.
• Buy / EST: pay once for permanent access to a specific title, subject to our continued right to distribute it.
• Tokens: a limited, revocable licence to unlock content within the Service. They are not money, not a stored-value or payment instrument, and not property. Tokens cannot be withdrawn, redeemed for cash, transferred or sold to anyone, or used anywhere outside BuddyCinemas, and no balance of them is ever payable to you in any form. Bonus Tokens are earned free of charge — daily check-ins, scratch-card rewards, and rewarded ads where offered — and are spent before Paid Tokens. Bonus Tokens expire if unused; the current window is shown in your wallet. Paid Tokens are purchased with real money on the web, to keep prices lower by avoiding app-store commission, and do not expire. Unlock costs are set per content type and per title by us and may change. Unlocking a title with Tokens grants access that does not itself expire, subject to §3 and to our continued right to distribute that title. Every token transaction is recorded in an immutable ledger for your reference and for dispute resolution.
• Where more than one access method could apply to a title, access is resolved in the following order: an active qualifying subscription, then a permanent purchase, then an active rental, then a token unlock.

5. Payments & Billing

• India: payments are processed by Razorpay and/or Cashfree on behalf of Newtact Lab Private Limited, and you will receive a GST-compliant invoice.
• Rest of World: payments are processed by Stripe on behalf of Thaja FZE LLC, and you will receive a VAT-compliant invoice where applicable.
• Prices are shown in your local currency where supported and may include applicable taxes. We may change prices for future billing cycles; where required by law, we will notify you before the change takes effect and, for recurring subscriptions, give you the opportunity to cancel.
• Recurring payments are set up as an e-mandate/auto-debit authorization. Where required by your bank's or card network's rules (for example, India's RBI e-mandate framework), you will receive advance notice before each recurring charge above the applicable threshold.
• We use idempotency safeguards on all payment, token, and entitlement writes so a network retry cannot double-charge you or double-grant access; if you believe you were charged incorrectly, contact us at hello@buddycinemas.com before disputing the charge with your bank, so we can investigate and correct it directly.

6. Devices, Streaming Limits & Account Sharing

To keep the Service fair and to respect our content licenses, we may cap the number of devices registered to an account and the number of simultaneous streams (for example, two concurrent streams), and may apply signed, short-lived, device-bound playback tokens. We use device fingerprinting, session management, and risk signals (for example, implausible simultaneous locations) to detect account sharing or credential abuse, and may require re-authentication, throttle, or suspend access where misuse is detected. Native mobile apps may verify device integrity (Play Integrity / DeviceCheck) at sign-in and before reward payouts to protect the token economy from bots and tampered devices.

7. Advertising & Rewarded Ads

Ad-supported (AVOD) viewing and Bonus Token rewards depend on ad networks completing playback verification on our servers — client-side "I watched the ad" signals are never trusted on their own. We may show a limited number of ads per session depending on content type, and may show interstitial or native ads. If you have opted into personalized advertising, you can manage that choice from your account/consent settings; where required by law (for example, India's DPDP Act, or Google's consent framework for the EEA/UK), personalized ads and analytics only run after you provide consent.

8. User Conduct

You agree not to:

• Circumvent, disable, or interfere with DRM, playback-token, geo-restriction, or rate-limiting mechanisms;
• Use bots, scripts, emulators, rooted/jailbroken devices, or automation to farm Bonus Tokens, rewards, or referral payouts;
• Reproduce, redistribute, publicly perform, download (except where we explicitly enable offline playback), or create derivative works from content without authorization;
• Share your account or login credentials for the purpose of enabling access by people outside your own household/plan allowance;
• Upload, transmit, or link to unlawful, infringing, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material through any reporting, review, or feedback feature we provide;
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, scrape, or probe the Service beyond normal, permitted use.

We may suspend or terminate access, freeze token balances pending investigation, and/or pursue legal remedies for violations of this section, consistent with our fraud and anti-abuse safeguards described in our Privacy Policy.

9. Intellectual Property

The Service, its design, software, and the BuddyCinemas name and logo are owned by Thaja FZE LLC and/or its licensors and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Content is licensed to us by content partners/producers or owned by us; all rights not expressly granted to you are reserved. See our Legal Notices for trademark and copyright details, and our Grievance Redressal & Copyright Policy if you believe your copyrighted work has been used without authorization.

10. Third-Party Services

The Service integrates third-party providers for payments, ad delivery, analytics, cloud storage/CDN, and communications. Your use of those integrated features may also be subject to the relevant third party's own terms; we select and configure these providers but do not control content or outages on their side.

11. Termination

You may stop using the Service, or delete your account, at any time (see our Privacy Policy for how to request account/data deletion). We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these Terms, misuse the token/reward economy, engage in payment fraud, or as required by law. Termination does not entitle you to a refund of any unused subscription period, rental, purchase, or token balance except as described in our Refund & Cancellation Policy or as required by applicable law.

12. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, and we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free streaming (network conditions, device compatibility, and third-party infrastructure can all affect playback quality). To the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability for any claim arising from your use of the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BuddyCinemas, Newtact Lab Private Limited, Thaja FZE LLC, and their officers, employees, and partners from claims arising out of your breach of these Terms or misuse of the Service.

14. Governing Law & Disputes

• For users in India, these Terms are governed by the laws of India, and disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Hyderabad, Telangana.
• For users outside India, these Terms are governed by the laws applicable to Thaja FZE LLC's place of establishment in the United Arab Emirates.

We encourage you to contact us first at hello@buddycinemas.com so we can try to resolve any issue directly before a formal dispute.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in the Service, our business, or the law. We will post the updated Terms here with a new "Last updated" date, and where changes are material, we will provide additional notice (for example, an in-app banner or email) before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

16. Contact Us

Questions about these Terms can be sent to hello@buddycinemas.com, or by post to Newtact Lab Private Limited, 12th Floor, Manjeera Trinity Corporate, Geek Space Business Centre, Near Lulu Mall, KPHB Phase 3, Hyderabad, Telangana 500072, India.