Author: Kashmeera Sambamurthy

Ayan Mukerji and Namit Malhotra on tech, VFX’s role in Brahmastra

There were 2400 VFX shots in Avengers: End Game, and there were 4500 VFX shots in Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva. Mukerji states that 30 percent of their overall budget was invested in VFX

Ayan Mukerji, director, writer, producer of Brahmastra and Namit Malhotra, founder, Prime Focus, chairman and global CEO of DNEG talk about tech talk about the way ahead for VFX in Indian cinema and more. Listen in.

Meta India chief Ajit Mohan’s sudden exit and his time at Facebook

Under his close to half-decade leadership the company has also made significant investments in businesses across sectors in India. For instance, in June 2019, the company invested in social ecommerce platform Meesho. In February 2020, the company joined others like General Atlantic and Sequoia India to be a part of a funding round of $110 in ed-tech start-up Unacademy. In April 2020, they announced a $5.7 billion, investment in Jio Platforms, making Meta its largest minority shareholder

Ajit Mohan who worked as the India head of the tech giant’s India operations for almost four years not just scaled the company’s operations but introduced a lot of firsts in the India market.

Elon Musk starts firing Twitter India teams

Some media reports suggest that Twitter has sacked the entire marketing team while others are stating that the company is laying off atleast 50% of its India team. (Representative Image via Unsplash)

The layoffs are part of the Elon Musk-owned company’s plan to reduce its 7,500-person workforce as a measure to save costs.

Indian brands are tuning into ASMR. Here’s why

Food and grocery delivery app Swiggy, through its recent set of films, has also used ASMR as its central theme. Through this new series, the brand has created mukbang videos. Mukbang, a Korean word, is typically videos of people eating a large quantity of food. Viewers can see and hear the mukbangers eat burgers, chaat, french fries, and a lot more, for three minutes. Brands like Nescafe, Vistara and SKODA India, among others, have also marketed their products by leveraging the power of ASMR in the recent past

ASMR also called “brain massage” has opened up an interesting style of storytelling for brands to reach out to a newer set of consumers.

Coca-Cola India: After Thums Up and Sprite, Maaza to become a billion dollar brand

At present, the company has a range of over 20 products in India spanning everything from sparkling drinks, to coffee, juices, water and milk-based beverages. The beverage products include Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Thums Up, Fanta, Limca, Sprite, Maaza, VIO flavoured milk, Minute Maid range of juices, Georgia, Aquarius, Schweppes, SmartWater and Kinley, among others

According to Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia President Sanket Ray: “(Revenue from) Maaza will be around Rs 4.500-5,000 crore this year. It is in line to be a billion-dollar (around Rs 8,000 crore) brand soon. This year, we are facing pressure from higher mango prices.“It (Maaza) is expected to touch the (billion-dollar) mark by 2024, but if it does so in 2023, then that would be a bonus.”

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover raises concerns among marketers

Elon Musk, who earlier this year had dropped the plan to acquire Twitter citing a high number of fake accounts on the platform, had said that advertisers would not be able reach the customers they intended if Twitter was flooded with bogus accounts. According to Musk’s statements earlier this year, 10% of the platform’s daily active users who see ads are inauthentic accounts (Representative Image via Unsplash)

General Motors suspended its paid advertising on Twitter after Musk’s takeover, saying that the platform will change now and that it wants to understand the direction Twitter will take.