Media Entertainment & Art Community

Anurag Thakur recently took charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry at a crucial time when Indian Cinema was finding its way back from the setbacks received throughout the pandemic. Recent events include the uproar over specific streaming contents on the digital platform and criticism for the proposed changes in the censorship, certification and piracy, along with the shutdown of theaters due to social distancing norms. All these factors will become a trouble-making scenario for the newly joined Information and Broadcasting Minister. Various shows on different OTT platforms were pleaded to be stopped streaming, as per the litigations filed in multiple courts. Thus, keeping in mind these upcoming issues of censorship and changes made in the Cinematograph Act 1952. There will be a lot of challenges for the Minister. Source: firstpost.com

Kerala is India’s most brutal hit state due to Covid-19, as the rise of covid-19 cases is still visible in the state after 18 months. The state’s film exhibition industryis estimated to face Rs 500 crore revenue loss due to the pandemic. On average, Kerala releases around 100-120 movies in theaters. The state has around 545 theaters, including single screen and multiplexes. Although few stars like Fahadh Faasil found a ready audience for OTT streaming platforms, many films remain stuck and unable to find the apt buyer, with an uncertainty of reopening theaters. Also, no one is sure how the backlog of so many films will be screened in theatres while it reopens in the coming time. Source: Livemint.com

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced the appointment of the five-member All-India Junior Selection Committee. Sharath Sridharan (South Zone) will head the committee with Pathik Patel (West Zone), Ranadeb Bose (East Zone), Kishan Mohan (North Zone) and Harvinder Singh Sodhi (Central Zone) being the other appointments in the committee. Sharath, who has also played for Assam, was the first-ever Tamil Nadu cricketer to play 100 Ranji Trophy games for the state and in his 15-year-career, scored 8700 runs from 139 games with 27 hundreds and an average of 51-plus . It is widely believed that he missed out on a Test cap as his career coincided with the likes of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. Harvinder Singh Sodhi, a lanky medium-fast bowling all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh, has played 76 games and has 2000 plus runs and 174 wickets in his kitty and was also a BCCI match referee. Kishan Mohan represented Punjab as a batting all-rounder in 45 matches from 1987-1995. Ranadeb Bose, who had toured with the Indian team during the 2007 series in England, has played 91 first-class games and has 317 wickets. Source: India Today  

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, one of the leading media and entertainment houses, recently announced Nitin Mittal’s appointment as Data and Technology wing president. Zee entertainment enterprises limited is at the pace of taking various strategic steps to grow its digital pivot, drive exponential growth across digital platforms and look forward to better transformation to be looked upon and to stay in line with ZEE 4.0. The transformation process is targeted towards creating a digitally apt data-first company, which can be a leading payer in terms of all formats of content consumption, both linear and digital. Source: Zeenews.india.com

Based on predictions, India is expected to become the fifth-largest economy in the world by 2025 surpassing the UK. It is also the second-most populous country in the world. For such a massive population, do you wonder what kind of entertainment people like to indulge in? Well, when it comes to disposable income, India has a stark divide. But mostly, the middle-class seeks out ways of entertainment that are affordable and not too far-fetched. Sources of Entertainment for People in India 1) Social Media Well, when we talk about social media, it is not only the major source of entertainment for people in India, it is also widely relied on in other parts of the world. Since social media is cheap and affordable, many people turn to different platforms for entertainment, information and news. According to statistics, more than 51% of the Indian population has access to the internet and is present on social media platforms. The most widely used platform in India is Facebook at an astounding 79.3%. People turn to social media for documentaries, memes, storytellers, influencers, and much more. 2) Broadcast In India, people still prefer to watch and entertain themselves through television and soap operas. Most people watching television watch Bollywood and Hollywood movies and sports. Even with the boom in web series and OTT platforms, TV is still widely preferred in India because it has free entertainment.

The famous actress created a stir as she announced on social media that she is working on a new film –The Incarnation Sita. She shared the film’s poster on Instagram for her fans and followers. The actress recently starred in Thalaivii, a biopic on the life of Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. The actress announced her next project – The Incarnation Sita. The film will be directed by Alaukik Desai. The story is written by screenwriter KV Vijayendra Prasad. Kangana shared the first poster of the film and said, “The Incarnation- Sita Glad to be on board for the title role with this immensely talented team of artists. With the blessings of Sita Ram Jai SiyaRam.” Talking about his upcoming film, filmmaker Alaukik Desai said in a press statement, “Universe does help those who surrender to it with belief. What was a mirage, is now clarity. A dream of a pious character never explored is now a reality. I am ecstatic to bring Kangana Ranaut on board as Sita. This pious journey will change the course of how we perceive our mythology. Thank you SS Studio for your immense support and belief.” The movie will be produced by A Human Being Studio and will be released in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. Apart from The Incarnation Sita, Kangana has Dhaakad and Tejas for her future projects. Source: India Today

The Over-the-top video streaming platforms in India; Disney+Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Voot, and many more, might seem to have been making deeper roots in the country but are still very far from making profitable numbers in their account. This is due to the streaming firms being trapped with high content costs, low Arpus (Average revenue cost per user), an uncrowded market with an end number of options, the availability of free-of-cost ad-based platforms, and the challenges of piracy. Other than just creating web originals these big platforms of OTT are also acquiring digital rights for various films, and video streaming services. For this the OTT platforms are being expected to spend Rupees 1,920 crore. But as a matter of concern, as per a report by media consulting firm Ormax, 110.5 million out of 353.2 million only watch paid content on OTT. Source: livemint.com

Video games have always been one of the favourite time pass or entertainment for a lot of youngsters across the globe. It does have an addictive impact on the minds of the person playing it, providing a deep sense of satisfaction and joy. Hence video games have so far never been out of fashion. Becoming the cherry on the cake, the pandemic era brought back the craze and allowed contribution of enough time for people to play and enjoy these games. Keeping the steep rise of demand in mind and the quality freak content, Netflix is all set to launch newest video games and targeting new hiring for the same. With this aim OTT platform Netflix is expanding into video games, for this purpose the company has hired Mike Verdu, who is a former Facebook and Electronic Arts executive, as its new vice president of game development. As per the reports, Verdu was previously the VP of content for Facebook Reality Labs, where he was in charge to look after Oculus Studios and the teams that brought second and third-party virtual reality games to Oculus VR headsets. At present Netflix Verdu will be reporting to Greg Peters, Netflix’s chief operating officer and chief product officer. This is being considered as the trump card move by Netflix, keeping in the mind the latest, market trends. The Liontree CEO Aryeh Bourkoff, who is also the banker behind the biggest media deals of 2021, which included WarnerMedia- Discovery merger and MGM’s sale to Amazon, has signalled this attempt to be made by Netflix soon in coming time, during a panel at the Tribeca X conference last month. It was determined in the panel that various big companies are now approaching towards offering as many products as it can. Be it Spotify offering video with Audio or Netflix offering audio, video as well as gaming products and Amazon offering content on OTT as well almost every sellable product under the sun. If these companies would have stayed limited to doing what they started off, there was no certainty of its survival on such large scale in the present scenario. Along with this Netflix has also waved the flags signalling its move towards podcast content as well in the coming time soon, for which the new hire of N’ Jeri Eaton is on the list. Source: The economictiomes.com

After the death of Akshay Kumar’s mother Aruna Bhatia in Mumbai, his friends and colleagues from the film fraternity offered condolences to the actor and his family on social media. Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Parineeti Chopra, Huma Qureshi, Emraan Hashmi, Abhishek Kapoor, Pooja Bhatt, Soni Razdan, Hansal Mehta and other celebs mourned the death of Aruna Bhatia on Twitter. She died due to age-related issues on Wednesday morning at Mumbai’s Hiranandani Hospital. Salman Khan, who co-starred with Akshay Kumar in films like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi and Jaan-E-Mann, tweeted: “Dear Akki, very sad to hear of the passing of your mother. May she rest in peace. My deepest condolences to you and your entire family.” “Dear Akki, heartfelt condolences on your mother’s passing away. May Arunaji’s soul find eternal peace. Condolences to you and your family. Om Shanti,” wrote Ajay Devgn, who has worked with Akshay Kumar in Khakee, Insan, Suhaag and Sooryavanshi, which is yet to be released. Huma Qureshi, who was last seen alongside Akshay Kumar in Bell Bottom, wrote this in her tweet: “Sending you prayers and peace Sir. Om Shanti.” “Sorry to hear about aunty Akshay sir… We are praying for her and the entire family,” tweeted Akshay’s Kesari co-star Parineeti Chopra. Emraan Hashmi offered his condolences with these words: “So sorry for your loss .. heartfelt condolences to you and your family.” Comedian Kapil Sharma’s tweet read: “Dear Akshay paji, it’s very sad to hear about your mother passing away, my deepest condolences to you and family, god bless the departed soul.” Akshay Kumar shared the news about his mother’s death in a tweet that read: “She was my core. And today I feel an unbearable pain at the very core of my existence. My maa Smt Aruna Bhatia peacefully left this world today morning and got reunited with my dad in the other world. I respect your prayers as I and my family go through this period. Om Shanti.” Source: The news has been published by NDTV news network.  

With keeping best of promises to outperform the capabilities, Indian players said a heartwarming goodbye to Tokyo Paralympics. The closing ceremony concluded Paralympics with a grandeur. Tokyo Olympics had been a treat to watch when it comes to Indian athletes and the end of Paralympics has given a ray of hope for more endurance towards sports. Indian para-athletes concluded the event with a tally of 19 medals, which included five golds, to finish at 24th rank among 162 participating countries in the overall counting in the category of gold medals. With that the country was placed on 20th position for the overall medals (19) won by the Indian para-athletes. This total medal count also included eight silver and six bronze. This year one of its largest contingents of 54 para-athletes was sent from India to participate in Paralympics, who all competed in nine sporting events, among these 17 players left with medals including various winners like: Avani Lakhera (Gold- Bronze) and Sinnghraj Adhana (Silver- Bronze). A lot of expectations are poured by the country on the players for upcoming sports events to hold on national and international level. Source: thetimesofIndia.com